The Red Team
by floydcotton
Summary: During season 1 of Endurance, the girl on the Red Team is Kiley, not Ashley. She falls in love with her partner, Christian.
1. Chapter 1: Audition of a Lifetime

**I really appreciate hearing from my readers, so any reviews are welcome. This is a story based on season 1 of the Discovery Kids' TV show, Endurance. It takes place in the summer of 2002 and was filmed on Catalina Island, California. I am replacing Ashley Gudzak from the Red Team with Kiley Lyon, an OC. I'll put a picture of her up on my account. Also, if you have never watched the show, I'll put a link for the first episode up on my account as well. I'm also making Kiley into a champion surfer, even though I know very little about surfing. I'm trying to learn some stuff about it off the Internet and from surfing friends of mine, but I apologize to any surfers reading my story who might get offended at my lack of surfing knowledge. I am the farthest thing from a surfing expert and will never pretend to be one. If anyone notices any mistakes I make relating to surfing, please let me know and I'll try to fix it. Thanks, and sorry again for any surfing-related mistakes. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC. **

**Chapter One: Audition of a Lifetime**

Kiley Lyon was 14 years old when she heard about Endurance for the first time. She had just arrived at the Pier, a beach in her hometown of San Clemente, California, to surf with her cousin and her friend when she saw a flier posted about auditions for a new TV show called Endurance.

"Hey guys, have you ever heard of this before?" Kiley called out to her friends.

Her friends came up and read the flier. They both shook their head, indicating that they hadn't.

"No," said Kiley's friend Taylor, "What is this thing, a new kind of Survivor or something?"

"Looks like it," replied Kiley, "It says it's a competition for teenagers to see who has the most endurance to make it through the game."

"It looks cool," said Mike, who was Kiley's cousin, "We should give it a shot."

"What, you mean we should audition?" Kiley asked skeptically, "Like, actually try to get on the show? What are the odds that any one of us will actually get picked? I mean, there are probably thousands of kids our age auditioning, there is no way that any of us will ever get on this show."

"You never know, Ki," Mike replied, using her childhood nickname, "I mean, all of us have surfed ever since we were kids and have even won a few competitions. Surfing is a tough sport and if we can survive it, then we can survive a TV show. Plus, if this is a physical competition, don't you think they'll be picking athletic kids? We're all athletes, we could have a shot!"

"Especially you, Kiley," Taylor added, "You're the best surfer out of all of us."

"Just because I've won a few more competitions than you two doesn't mean I'm better. Neither of you didn't even compete against me when I won them!" Kiley protested, "Maybe I don't even want to audition."

"Oh, come on, Ki!" Taylor pleaded, "Please, please, please! It won't be any fun if you don't audition!"

"Yeah, Kiley," Mike added, "It wouldn't be any fun if we auditioned without you. Come on, let's just do it for a laugh. It doesn't matter if we get chosen or not, it'll just be fun to start high school next year and be able to tell people that we auditioned for a TV show. Plus, if you don't audition, you definitely won't get picked; at least you'll have a shot if you actually try."

Kiley sighed before saying, "Fine, if it gets you two to stop complaining about it. Heaven knows that if I don't audition, neither of you will let me forget it."

Taylor and Mike cheered as Kiley turned and started walking to the beach. The two ran to catch up with her.

"The sign said to send in a tape," Mike said, "Do you think your mom will fill them for us, Kiley?"

Kiley's mom was a professional camera operator for the local news channel and had dozens of cameras and other kinds of equipment stored at their house. Kiley considered it; if her mom filmed their audition tapes, they would look professional and might just give the three of them an edge over the other kids who would more than likely be using hand held camcorders.

"Probably," Kiley replied, "She always films our surfing competitions, so she'll probably be willing to film our tapes for us. But what would we do in the tapes? We probably shouldn't just say that we want on the show, we would need to give them a reason to pick us."

"We could do something with surfing," Taylor suggested, "We're all great at surfing, which might give us a chance. Plus, I'm sure not many of the other kids auditioning will do anything like it. There might be some kids from the coasts who'll do surfing, but that's a small part of the country. Like you said, your mom's always filming our competitions, so she'll know how to make us look even better on tape."

The three of them agreed that they should each do something with surfing, just as long as they did different tricks. It might not look good if they all did the exact same thing on their audition tapes. As they were coming out of the changing areas, they noticed another group of surfers about 50 yards away who looked to be about their age.

"Who are they?" Taylor asked, very interested in these good looking boys.

"I only know the blonde guy in the red swimming trunks," Kiley replied, "His name is Christian Justice, he's been at a lot of the same competitions as me. He's really good, he's number one in his age group."

"Is he from around here?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, he is," Kiley replied, "I think he went to Shorecliffs Middle School. I know he'll be going to school with us next year."

"He's kinda cute, don't you think?" Taylor asked with a sly grin on her face.

"Oh, please," Mike groaned before Kiley could respond, "No talking about guys while I'm around. I knew I should have asked David to come today so that I could have someone to talk to while the two of you drooled over guys."

"Now you know how I felt the other day when you and David were talking about that one girl in the blue bikini," Taylor retorted, "It was nauseating."

As the other two continued bickering, Kiley couldn't help herself; she glanced down the beach at Christian, who was just heading into the water with his friends. After a few seconds, as if he felt someone watching him, he turned and made eye contact with her. Christian held her gaze for a few seconds before smiling and waving at her, which she gladly returned. Taylor was right, she decided, he was kinda cute.

That night when she got home, Kiley told her mom about the auditions. She told her that Mike and Taylor had pretty much forced her into agreeing to audition and now there was no way for her to back out.

"Honey, I'm sure it'll just be something fun for you three to do before the summer's over," her mom reassured her, "Like Mike said, you never know until you try. Who knows, you might have a shot. I'd love to shoot the tapes for you; just let me know when and where, I'll be there."

A few days later, Kiley was back at the Pier with her mom, Mike, and Taylor to film their audition tapes. They decided to let Mike go first as he was the only guy, with Taylor going second and Kiley going last. All three of them started off their tapes introducing themselves and explaining what they were going to do before heading out in the water to surf. Each tape lasted about 10 minutes each, with each of them making appearances on each others' tapes.

"That was so awesome!" Mike exclaimed as they finished the last tape, "Thanks for helping us, Mrs. Lyon."

"It's no problem, kids," Kiley's mom replied, "I'm glad you all had fun. I hope that the people doing the casting for this show sees how talented you are and picks at least one of you. But you do need to consider the fact that not all three of you could get picked. One or two of you might get left out and you need to prepare yourselves for that."

"She's right," Kiley said as her mom walked back to the car, "What if only one of us gets picked? Or what if two of us get picked and the other one gets left out?"

"It'll be no big deal," Taylor said, "At least one or two of us would get to go."

Kiley hoped more than anything that Taylor was right. She would hate for her friendship with these two to get ruined just because of a stupid TV show. Now all the three of them could do was mail in their tapes and wait for the call to come.


	2. Chapter 2: On the Show

**Just so everyone knows, I'm making it so Kiley turns 15 the July before her freshman year of high school. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Two: On the Show**

It was now the first week of July and only two weeks before Kiley's 15th birthday. It had been two weeks since the three friends had sent in their audition tapes for Endurance and they still hadn't heard anything; they had almost given up hope that any of them would get the call saying they would be on the show.

Kiley had just gotten back home with her family after a 4th of July camping trip and was unpacking in her room when her mom called her into the kitchen.

"Honey, there's a message on the phone for you," her mom said with a big smile on her face.

"Who's it from?" Kiley asked, curious about what could make her mom smile like that.

"Just listen," her mom replied, handing her the phone.

Kiley listened to the message and was stunned at what she heard. It was a man named JD Roth, who was the show's creator/producer/host, telling her that she was one of 40 finalists to be on the show. He told her that they were trying to cut it down to 20 kids, so she had a 50/50 chance of being one of those 20. He gave her a number at the end for her to call back and confirm that she had received the message.

She was in shock; she had actually made it to be one of 40 kids out of thousands who had a chance of being on the show! Kiley almost deleted the message before she realized she hadn't written down the number at the end that she needed to call back. Before she could hit replay on the phone, her mom stopped her.

"I wrote it down for you already," she told her excited daughter, "Hurry and call them back, then you can call and tell your friends."

Kiley quickly called the number back and was surprised when JD Roth himself answered the phone. After a brief conversation, she hung up and sat down at the kitchen table. She was trying to take it all in; she had never expected that she would ever have even the slightest chance to be on any kind of a TV show.

Mike and Taylor were the first two people that Kiley called. She hoped that at least one of them had gotten the same call, but it was not to be: neither one of them had been told that they were in the top 40. This soured Kiley's mood a bit as she would have never even auditioned for the show if it hadn't been for their prodding. Even though she was assured by her cousin and her friend that they had no hard feelings towards her, Kiley couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. She knew they had both wanted to be on the show, but they wouldn't be able to.

It was 5 days later when Kiley was woken up by her mother. It was early on the morning of July 10th and, like any other teenager during summer break, Kiley was not happy about being woken up early.

"What?" she groaned, wanting desperately to roll over and go back to sleep.

"Wake up, Ki, there's someone on the phone for you," her mom replied gently.

"Tell them to call back in a couple of hours," Kiley mumbled into her pillow.

"Trust me, honey; you don't want them to call you back in a couple of hours. You'll want to take this call right now, it's important," her mom replied in a tone that was filled with humor. Kiley could hear the smile in her voice.

"Fine," Kiley said irritably before taking the phone and snapping, "There better be a good reason you're calling me at 7:30 in the morning in July when all normal people should still be in bed."

"Hey, Kiley, this is JD Roth," the voice on the other end of the phone said with a laugh, "Don't worry, I have a great reason to be calling you so early."

"I am so sorry!" Kiley said quickly, now fully awake, "I thought you were one of my friends or something, I didn't realize it was you!"

"That's ok, I've gotten that quite a bit in the past 24 hour," JD replied, "I just wanted to let you know that you have been picked as one of the 20 kids to be on season 1 of Endurance."

"Really! Are you sure this isn't a joke or something," Kiley all but yelled in excitement.

"Really, this isn't a joke," JD laughed. "In a week and a half, you will be coming to Catalina Island off the coast of California to be on the show."

Kiley couldn't believe it; she'd actually made it on the show! Out of thousands of kids, she was one of twenty kids who would get to have an experience of a lifetime! After a few more minutes of talking, JD told her that all of the information she would need would be in the mail within the next two days. Kiley and JD then said goodbye before hanging up. Kiley threw the phone on her bed and ran into her parents' room.

"I made it on the show!" she screamed as she jumped onto their bed.

"That's great, honey," her dad said with a smile, "When does it start?"

"In a week and a half," Kiley replied, "JD, the host of the show, said that it was gonna be on Catalina Island, so it won't be too far from here. Imagine if it was taking place in Florida or something, it would take forever to get there. JD said that more information should be coming in the mail in the next few days. Thanks, by the way, Mom. It's probably because of the audition tape you shot that got me on the show."

"It's really no problem, sweetheart, it was just as much fun for me as it was for you and your friends. I'm just glad that you get to experience this," her mom said with a big smile on her face.

A few hours later, Kiley met Mike and Taylor down at the Pier to tell them the news. As she saw the two of them approaching, she couldn't help but smile and jump up and down in her excitement. To think that she hadn't even wanted to audition for the show in the first place almost made her laugh.

"Guess what, guess what, guess what!" Kiley gushed, barely containing her excitement.

"Hmmm, I have no idea what she could be talking about," Mike said in a mock thoughtful voice, "What do you think, Taylor?"

"I don't know Mike," Taylor replied, pretending to be just as puzzled, "Do you think something exciting happened?"

"No, I don't think so," Mike said in a serious tone, "Nothing exciting ever happens to the three of us."

"Unless, of course," Taylor said with a smile starting to take over her face, "Your dear cousin happened to get a certain phone call informing her that she has been selected to participate in a certain television show."

Kiley confirmed their guess by jumping up and down, almost screaming with happiness. Mike and Taylor joined in, happy for her even though they hadn't been chosen alongside her. One of them had made it on the show, which was more than any of them could have hoped for.


	3. Chapter 3: The First Day

**I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Three: The First Day**

A week and a half after receiving that life-changing phone call, Kiley was now 15 years old. She had celebrated her birthday on July 17th, and she had the best birthday of her life. All of her family and friends threw her a party not just to celebrate her birthday, but also to celebrate her acceptance onto the show. She had received a packet in the mail containing her travel information and a list of things she would need to pack.

As she was only 15, one of her parents would need to travel with her for legal reasons. They decided that her mother would be the one to travel with her since she was able to get the at least three weeks necessary off of work. While Kiley would be staying on a secluded beach, her mother would be staying in a hotel with the rest of the parents.

On the morning of Saturday, July 20th, Kiley was finally ready to go to Catalina Island. She was going to drive with her mom to Dana Point, where Kiley would get on a boat with the rest of the kids and her mom would get on a boat with the rest of the parents. They were both really happy about the boats leaving from Dana Point because it was only about ten minutes away from San Clemente. Kiley and her mom had been packing for days; they were both excited about leaving for the adventure of a lifetime.

At 9 o'clock, they loaded up the car and set off. Even though it was only a ten minute drive, it felt like hours before they arrived in Dana Point. Kiley's mother must have noticed how anxious she was because she suddenly started laughing.

"Sweetheart, relax," she laughed, "We'll be there in just a few minutes. Just think about all of the people who have to travel all the way across the country. We're lucky that it's just a few minutes away."

"I know, Mom," Kiley sighed, "I just didn't realize how much I actually wanted to be on the show until this morning. I guess I'm just anxious to get there and get started."

As they pulled into ferry terminal parking lot, Kiley was practically shaking. She couldn't believe that she was actually here; she was actually going on a TV show to compete against all of these other kids! After unloading all of their bags and started walking into the terminal, Kiley caught a glimpse of a man and a teenage boy walking just a few yards away from them. It took Kiley a few seconds to realize that she knew the boy: he was Christian Justice, the boy she knew from surfing competitions.

"Hey, Mom, I know that boy over there!" she exclaimed, "He lives in San Clemente just like us!"

"Really?" her mother asked in surprise, "Do you think he could be here for the show as well? What are the odds that they pick two kids from the same town?"

"I don't know," Kiley responded, "But I can understand why they would choose him, he's a great surfer."

They entered the terminal, where they were told that they had to split up and get ready to get on the boats. Kiley suddenly became very nervous; this could be the last time she saw her mother for possibly the next three weeks. Just as she had earlier, her mother noticed her discomfort.

"Ki, you'll be fine. I know you'll do great in the competition and I won't be too far away just in case something happens. Don't worry, just have fun and do your best," she said in a comforting voice.

"I know Mom, I'm just kind of nervous about being away from you guys for so long," Kiley replied, "Even when I went away for surfing competitions, I always had either you or Dad there with me."

"Like I said, you'll do great," her mom said confidently, "If you try your best, everything will work out fine."

"Thanks, Mom," Kiley said as she hugged her, "Don't get too wild and crazy with the other parents when you're at the hotel. Remember, you're a mom, you're not supposed to have too much fun."

"Right, of course," she laughed, "Heaven forbid that a mother has fun on vacation!"

The two of them laughed before hugging one last time and saying goodbye. Kiley walked over to a group of teenagers who were standing off to the side.

"Hello, everyone!" Kiley said enthusiastically, trying to be friendly.

"Hi!" replied the group as a whole, equally as enthusiastic as Kiley.

"I'm Kiley, what are your names?" she asked.

They went around the group and introduced themselves. Kiley already knew Christian, and everyone else's names were Max DeLeo, Brandon Hendrix, Skyler Russell, Trevor Wilkins, Jon Crocilla, Aaron Thornburg, Jenna Jimenez, Layla Brisco, Chelsea Meyers, Lana Neiman, Sabrina Lloyd, Jonna Mannion, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, Ron Neurauter, Shane Peltzman, Cree Howard, Heather Ichihashi, and Lacey Elick. It seemed as if Kiley and Christian, who had both arrived at the same time, were the last to arrive at the terminal.

As they all started to get to know each other, Kiley found herself becoming friends with Sabrina. Sabrina, who was from Texas, seemed to be nice and the two girls had a great deal in common. After a few minutes, Christian came up to Kiley.

"Hey, you're that girl I saw on the beach in San Clemente a few weeks ago, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm from San Clemente. You're the one who's won all of those surfing competitions, aren't you?" Kiley asked.

"Yeah, I am," Christian replied, "I knew I recognized you, we've competed against each other before."

Kiley laughed and replied, "We've been in a few of the same competitions. Unfortunately for me, you always seemed to come out the winner."

Before Christian could reply, a man came up to them and announced that they needed them to do some voice recording for the opening shot of the show. All they needed to do was say who they were, how old they were, and where they were from. They could also add a little bit about what their strategy for the game would be.

When it was Kiley's turn, all she said was, "My name is Kiley Lyon, I'm 15, and I'm from San Clemente, California." She didn't want to say anything about strategy because truth be told, she didn't really have a strategy yet.

After all 20 of the teenagers did their voice recordings, they were taken onto the boat. It wasn't a ferry, which Kiley had expected, but a large sail boat. Kiley stuck close to Sabrina and Christian, and they were soon joined by Jon, who was from Chicago. The four of them decided that they would form an alliance to work together during the competition.

It took them about an hour to sail to Catalina Island, where they were greeted by JD Roth on the beach. As they all stood in front of him with the cameras focused on them, he started telling them about what they would be doing on the show.

"Hey, everybody," JD greeted, "Welcome to Endurance. I'm JD Roth. All 20 of you have been selected from around the country to see if you have what it takes. The two who demonstrate true endurance will make it to the end and win the adventure of a lifetime. What exactly does that mean? Well, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Maybe a trip to Australia to hang out with the kangaroos? No problem. Search for the lost cities of the Amazon? Done. If you wanna go to Africa and go on a safari, we will make your wildest dreams come true. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?"

All of the teenagers nodded in agreement; they all liked this idea of being able to go on a trip if they won the show. Kiley was curious, however, because JD said that two of them would win and be able to go on this trip. Would they be competing based on their gender, where the boys would be competing against each other and the girls would be competing against each other and the winner from each group would go on the trip? Or would they be partnering up and competing as a team?

"Yeah," they all said together.

"Yeah, don't pack your bags yet," JD replied, "There's a long road ahead. The challenges we're gonna put you through could very well change your life. You ready to take a look around?"

Everyone nodded, anxious to see where they would be staying.

"Alright, follow me," JD said, and they all started walking up the beach.

As they approached two small huts, JD instructed that the boys stand in front of the hut on the left and the girls stand in front of the hut on the right.

"So, this is where you're gonna be living," JD explained, "Not as comfortable as home, but at least you got a roof over your head and a bed to sleep on."

Then JD turned and asked, "Jenna, do you like surprises?"

Jenna hesitated for a second before letting out an unsure, "Yeah."

JD smiled and replied, "Good, cause on Endurance Island, there's gonna be plenty of surprises; and these living quarters right here, they're no exception. But we'll get to that a little later. Should we show you a little more?"

Everyone nodded and said yes. They followed JD down the beach and stood in front of seven wooden poles with colored cloth wrapped around the top of each one: grey, yellow, red, purple, blue, orange, and green. Each pole was painted to match the cloth that was wrapped around it. Next to the poles was a long wooden board that had 10 triangular pieces on it.

"Standing before you are the Pyramids of Endurance. Take a look, because each of these ten pieces contains a quality needed to survive this game. There's Luck, Trust, Leadership, Perseverance, Discipline, Heart, Knowledge, Strength, Courage, and Commitment. The first team to collect all ten pieces wins the game."

So that's how two people will win the game, Kiley thought, we're gonna partner up. If I have to have a boy as a partner, I want Christian or Jon. If it doesn't matter, I want to have Sabrina as a partner. I hope we get to choose who we want.

"Sounds simple, right?" JD asked.

"Yeah," everyone laughed.

"Not really," JD said to the groans and laughter of the teenagers, "There are two types of missions: Endurance Missions and Temple Missions. Endurance Missions are always for pieces of the pyramid. Temple Missions decide who stays on the Island and who goes."

Everyone groaned, already dreading the Temple Missions. None of them wanted to leave; they had all wanted to get here so badly.

"Just take a look behind you, way up over there," JD pointed and everyone turned to see a building on top of a hill behind them.

"That's the Temple of Fate," JD continued, "This is the place where the game is either won or lost. The winner of the Temple Mission will get to select any two teams they want to send up to the Temple. Two teams will go up there, only one will return. So be careful who you send, because one team's coming back. Remember when I told you there would be surprises around every corner?"

"Yeah," everyone replied nervously.

"Those living quarters over there," JD said, "They only have enough room for seven guys and seven girls. That means six of you will be going home today. We only promised you'd get here, we didn't say anything about you staying. Right now I want you to take some time to get to know one another. I'm gonna see you all a little bit later for your first test on Endurance; or will it be your last? Have a good afternoon, I'll see you guys later."

As he walked away, the group of teenagers started heading back to the cabins; they were talking and laughing nervously, none of them wanted to go home yet. Kiley decided not to think about the fact that she could be going home in a few hours, she just wanted to spend time with the other kids and have fun.

They all raced into their cabins and started choosing which bed they wanted. Kiley always wanted a top bunk, so she threw her bag onto a top bunk and climbed up. Everyone was talking and laughing and having fun; Jonna even jokingly suggested that they should meditate to prepare for the task. They had a group hug with Jenna insisting to be in the middle. All of the other girls were talking loudly and really fast, which was noted by the quietest girl in the group named Chelsea. Kiley was the only one who noticed, as everyone else just kept on talking.

Everyone decided to gather outside to play football. The only two people who didn't join in the game were Skyler and Chelsea. Kiley and the others didn't know if they were just naturally quiet or if they were each working out a strategy. Kiley suspected that Chelsea was just naturally shy and quiet, but she had a feeling that Skyler was thinking out some sort of a strategy by just observing everyone else. It seemed like it might be a good idea, except for the fact that he wasn't really making any friends. In her confessional, Kiley confessed that she felt bad for Chelsea because she felt that Chelsea didn't really get a chance to get to know everyone else.

After they finished playing football, Kiley, Sabrina, and Lana noticed that Chelsea was sitting all alone on the steps by the cabin and went over to talk with her. Once Chelsea refused to play football, they all decided to make "rock people" by putting small rocks on top of bigger ones to make a face. After a little while of doing this, Kiley and Sabrina went to talk with Jon and Christian alone. They went a little way down the beach so that the others wouldn't hear them.

"So what do you guys think about this whole partner thing?" Kiley asked.

"You mean, who do we want as partners?" Jon asked.

"Yeah, if you could have anyone as a partner, who would it be?" Sabrina answered.

"I think it would be cool if the four of us partnered up," Christian said, "Maybe the two of us guys partner up with the two of you."

"That would be cool," Kiley replied, "Especially since we're already friends. But who would partner up?"

"Maybe Jon and I could partner up and you and Christian could partner up," Sabrina suggested, "Those are the two pairs that would work the best together."

"Yeah, that would be cool," Jon said, with Christian and Kiley nodding in agreement, "And our two teams can be in an alliance."

The four of them agreed on this plan; the only thing they could see standing in the way of it was the mission that afternoon. About an hour later, the group was told to head down to the water for their mission. As they approached the water, Kiley saw a huge metal structure about 50 yards out in the water.

"How's it going, everybody?" JD asked.

"Good," they all replied, even though they were all incredibly nervous.

"It looks like some of you have become very fast friends and I'm sure it's gonna be hard to say goodbye to six of your friends, isn't it?" he asked, to which everyone agreed.

"Now it's time to find out who's going home," JD continued, "Each week on Endurance, challenges are going to be borrowed from a specific event or person in history; and today, we're gonna mark your first moment in our history with our giant timeline. You're gonna grab hold of a ring and hold on for dear life as we raise a bungee cord attached to your feet. You guys are gonna need to ignore the pain and find your inner strength, because the first three guys and the first three girls that let go are gonna be sent home immediately. Guys, you're gonna be going first, are you ready?"

"Yeah," replied all of the guys.

The boys were taken out to the metal structure, where straps attached to a bungee cord were wrapped around their ankles. As they stood there on the platform looking incredibly nervous, Kiley and the other girls sat on the beach with JD to watch.

"Who do you think is guaranteed to stay?" JD asked.

"The yellow shorts guy, Jon," Sabrina replied, and all of the other girls agreed with her.

Christian, too, Kiley added in her head. She didn't know if this was just wishful thinking or if he really was going to stay, but Kiley really hoped he would.

"Ready, get set, go!" JD shouted, and the boys grabbed on to the metal rings.

They were quickly raised up by their feet and were basically having to arch their backs and just hang there. The girls were all cheering the boys on, hoping to encourage them. Alejandro was the first one to show signs of fatigue, twisting around and shifting his hands. He almost fell twice, letting go with his right hand the second time. He was barely able to pull himself back up and hold on. Despite Alejandro being the first person to almost fall, Shane was the first one to let go and was out of the game.

Kiley was in shock. This was the first time it really sank in that someone was going home; even though she wasn't really close to Shane, she still felt bad for him. Only a short time later, Ron was the second to fall. This made Kiley feel a mixture of sadness for Ron and excitement, because this meant if Christian could just outlast one more boy, he'd be in the game. The girls continued cheering, the excitement level rising. They all wanted to see which boys would make it onto the show. Unfortunately for Alejandro, he would not be one of those boys. He let go a few minutes after Ron and ended the mission.

Kiley was ecstatic; Christian was able to hang on! Jon was able to hold on as well, which was perfect. Now all she and Sabrina had to do was hold on and they would be able to form their two teams. As the boys swam back in, the girls all ran out to celebrate with them and congratulate them. They all felt bad about Shane, Ron, and Alejandro leaving and hugged the three of them to comfort them, letting them know that they would miss them.

Next, it was time for the girls to head out for their turn. Before they went out, Christian stopped Kiley and pulled her aside.

"Hey, don't be nervous, it wasn't that bad," he reassured her quietly, "Just hold on and close your eyes. Don't move around a whole bunch, that'll make you lose your grip. Just keep your eyes closed and breathe; don't listen to anyone else. You'll do great, don't worry."

"I'm not worried, I know that I'm gonna be able to hang on," Kiley responded, "I have to hang on because I'm supposed to be your partner, right?"

They both laughed before Kiley headed out to stand on the platform with the other girls. Despite what she told Christian, she was incredibly nervous. She had never wanted anything more in her life and she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to hang on.

"Ready, get set, go!" JD shouted for the second time that day, and it began for the girls.

Kiley held on to the rings as tightly as she could as she felt her feet begin to rise. She heard the boys cheering for her and the other girls and she wished they would be quiet. It was hard for her to concentrate with all of their shouting. But then she remembered what Christian said; she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Surprisingly, this helped calm her nerves and allowed her to focus more. After a few minutes, Kiley heard a splash and she knew this meant that someone had let go. She was tempted to open her eyes to see who it was, but she knew she would lose her concentration. Only two more girls needed to let go and then everything would be okay, she thought to herself.

Only a few minutes after the first girl fell, Kiley heard the splash that signaled the second girl falling. Alright, only one more left, she thought as she took another deep breath. She was so close to making it on the show that she couldn't imagine going home now. Only one more left. Finally, after one last splash, it was over. Kiley opened her eyes once it finally sank in; three other girls had fallen and, once she looked over, she saw that Sabrina wasn't one of them. Kiley had made it onto the show with her three friends and she would get to stay for at least a few more days!

With a shriek, Kiley let go of the rings and swung down. Once she released her ankles from the bungee cord and fell in the water, she discovered that Lacey, Heather, and Cree had been the three girls who would be going home. She and the other girls swam to shore, where they said goodbye to the three girls. As the three walked back to the cabins to get their bags, Kiley couldn't help but feel sad for them. She couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for them to know that they were going home on the first day.

After saying goodbye to the eliminated girls, Kiley and Sabrina hugged each other and celebrated the fact that both of them had made it. Kiley was relieved that the girl she was closest to had made it onto the show because she really hadn't formed any other close friendships with any of the other girls. A few moments into their celebration, Kiley was pulled into another hug by Christian.

"See, I told you I would hang on," Kiley said as she hugged him back.

Christian just smiled at her as towels were handed to both of them to help them dry off. Kiley wrapped her towel around her shoulders as they all moved to stand in front of JD.

"You fourteen are now our official Endurance players," he said as he started clapping, "Let's hear it for you guys, good job."

Everyone started clapping and cheering, happy to be official players and to be on the show.

"Way to go," JD congratulated, "But, as you've seen today, Endurance is no walk in the park. You may think that you have what it takes, but you guys should really ask yourselves, do I have the will and determination to make it all the way to the end? Tomorrow we're gonna choose partners, so I want you to take a good look around and find out a lot about each other. For instance, one of you has caught three hundred snakes in two days. One of you is a triplet. And one of you is the number four surfer in the United States Surf Confederation, while another one of you is the number five surfer." (**AN: I don't know if JD said "Surf Confederation" or "Surfing Federation." Either way, I couldn't find either one on the internet, so if anyone knows the real term for it, please let me know or I will make the change. Like I said before, I'm not an expert on surfing.) **

Kiley blushed and looked over at Christian, who smiled back at her. They both knew that Christian was the number four surfer and that Kiley was the number five.

"Any one of those people could your key to winning it all," JD continued, "Tonight, take a deep breath, you should all be very proud of yourselves. Have some fun, make sure you get a good night's rest, okay? It's gonna be a little hard out here, but tomorrow's gonna be another day where we're gonna test your endurance. Head on back to your bunks."

They all gathered in the boys' cabin to eat dinner and talk. As they were eating, Jon finally asked one of the questions that they had all been wondering since they left the beach.

"Alright, who here caught three hundred snakes in two days?" he asked.

"That was me," Aaron replied with a shy laugh, "We have a ton of snakes up in the mountains of Montana."

"You couldn't pay me enough money to go near one snake, let alone two hundred," Layla said with a shudder.

"Who's the triplet?" Max asked.

"Me," replied Lana, "I have two sisters. I'm the middle triplet, one of my sisters is older and the other is younger."

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that the two of you are the surfers?" Jon asked Christian and Kiley.

"Yeah, I'm number five and he's number four," Kiley replied with a smile, "He's always been able to beat me in the competitions we've been in together."

After staying up and talking for another few hours, the girls decided to go over to their cabin so they could all get some sleep. That's when Kiley realized that she was going to have to sleep on a wooden board; none of the beds had mattresses. All they had were sleeping bags and pillows to sleep on. How wonderful, Kiley thought sarcastically as she lay there on her bunk, my back is going to feel so wonderful in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4: Getting A Partner

**I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Four: Getting a Partner**

When she woke up in the morning, Kiley realized that her prediction the previous night had come true: her back was killing her! She had no idea how she was going to be able to move today, let alone compete in a mission. She decided to get up and take a shower before everyone else woke up; sharing showers with 13 other people in the mornings was not going to be fun. When she walked over to the showers, she saw that there were only three showers and that there was no hot water. Oh joy, she thought, no hot water.

After taking the coldest shower of her life, Kiley was happy to find that she would be able to use a hairdryer, since the bathroom was one of the only places that had an outlet. Sure, she had gone around with wet hair on the beach after surfing, but she was a typical teenage girl who liked to blow dry her hair after taking a shower. When she was almost done drying her hair, the door opened to reveal Lana, who was coming to take her shower.

"There you are," Lana said, "I woke up and saw your bed was empty. I heard the hair dryer and figured it might be you in here."

Kiley turned off the hair dryer and replied, "Yep, I decided to come in here early and get in my shower before everyone else woke up. I didn't want to have to fight everyone for a shower."

"Good idea," Lana said, "I may as well take one now while I'm in here."

"There's no hot water," Kiley warned, "Its ice cold."

"Really? That sucks," Lana groaned.

They both laughed as Lana started getting ready for her shower and Kiley finished drying her hair. Kiley couldn't help but think about the partner selection that would be happening later on that day. Would she be able to be partners with Christian and would Sabrina and Jon be partners like they had planned? Kiley certainly hoped so; she didn't want to be partners with anyone except Christian. Jon wouldn't be a bad partner to have, but Christian seemed to be the one boy who Kiley connected with the best.

Soon all the other girls woke up and discovered the joys of an ice cold shower. After much complaining on the part of the girls, the boys decided they didn't want to take a shower in the actual showers. Oh no, they wanted to bathe in the ocean; this idea came from none other than Christian, who had convinced the other boys that the ocean was the best place to get clean.

After breakfast, Sabrina and Kiley did each other's hair in French braids. Both girls were becoming closer friends, which was becoming apparent to the other players. Kiley felt that if the other players saw her friendship with Sabrina as some sort of a threat, they might try to split them up. The only way to guarantee that this didn't happen was if one of them won missions, which would ensure the safety of the other.

The teenagers were told to gather outside of the cabins to wait for JD, who would tell them about that day's mission. After a few minutes of waiting, they saw him approaching.

"Morning, guys," JD greeted them, earning a "Morning" back from the kids.

"Normally we wouldn't be meeting in the morning like this," he continued, "But today's kind of a big day. How did everybody sleep, first of all?"

Everyone pitched in about how hard it was to sleep on the beds and how cold it was. Kiley didn't mind it all that much; it would get really cold at night sometimes back home.

"And watching your friends leave yesterday wasn't easy either, was it?" JD asked.

"It was hard," Christian said, while everyone else nodded in agreement.

"It's a tough combination. Well, today is important because it's gonna determine your fate in this game and how long you're gonna last. That's because you're gonna be paired with teams. So, Kiley, who's the perfect partner for you?" JD asked as he turned to her.

Kiley tried to keep her face from turning red as she replied, "Probably Christian because we get along well and I can talk to him easily."

JD nodded before turning his attention to Jon, "Jon, have your eye set on a certain partner yet?"

"Yeah, Sabrina," Jon quickly replied, "She's got what it takes. She's got will power and determination and I think it will work out."

"You know in yesterday's game," JD said, "The person out there, as far as the girls go, who looked just severe and serious was Jenna."

Jenna laughed and acted as if she hadn't realized how "severe" she had looked.

"Jenna, do you have any idea of a partner you wanna be with?" JD asked.

Before she could respond, Trevor said that she would want to be partners with him.

"Why do you say that?" JD asked him.

"Because we're from Chicago," Jenna stated as if it was obvious.

"What makes Jenna such a good partner, Trevor?" JD asked.

"Well, pretty much, she's strong and I'm hoping that she's smart," Trevor said as everyone laughed.

"Well, guess what, guys, I've got a little surprise for you," JD said ominously, "You will not be choosing your own teammate. Another Endurance player is gonna do it for you."

Kiley's stomach dropped; someone else was going to pick her partner for her? Even though she had just made it clear that she wanted Christian as a partner, someone might decide to put her with someone else.

"So who you're gonna be paired with will ultimately help or hinder your chance to win this game," JD continued, "So if I were you, I would start negotiating with your fellow players now. Let them know who you want to be partnered with. I'm gonna give you the whole morning to talk amongst yourselves. The partner game is gonna be played later this afternoon, so have a good morning and I'll see you over there, ok?"

As soon as he stood up and walked away, all of the players started groaning. Someone else was going to pick their partners for them. Sure, everyone knew that Kiley wanted to be with Christian and that Jon wanted to be with Sabrina, but what if someone else wanted them as their partners? This threw a major kink in the plan to have the four of them be partners, Kiley thought, what if they weren't able to all be paired together?

They gathered back into one of the cabins to discuss the whole partner situation. Jonna suggested that everyone say who their top two choices would be, to which Jenna promptly stated that she would like to have any of the boys to be her partner.

When both Jon and Christian said that they would have Sabrina or Kiley, Layla piped up and said, "Not everyone can have Sabrina or Kiley, because they're only two people and they can't go to the entire group."

Kiley nodded in agreement; in all honesty, she really wanted Christian as a partner, but Jon wouldn't be such a bad partner, either. If she couldn't have Christian, then she would want Jon for a partner. So since those were the two boys who said that they would want to be partners with her, she agreed that she wouldn't want the rest of the boys to want to be partners with her.

As everyone started saying how they all wanted the same three people, Aaron noted how this was starting to turn everyone against each other. Skyler said that it hadn't yet, but it would by the time the game came around. After the meeting in the cabin, everyone went out on the beach. Kiley, Sabrina, Jon, and Christian went a little way away from the others to talk.

"What are we gonna do about the partner thing today?" Jon asked.

"I don't know," Kiley replied, "All the girls want to be with the two of you and all of the guys want to be with the two of us. They won't want to put us together, they'll want us to be their partners."

"We could talk to everyone and ask them to put us together," Christian suggested, "Maybe if we let them know that we really wanna be partners with each other, they'll put us together."

"But how are we going to convince them?" Jon asked, "We can't count on them putting us together just because they feel like it."

"We can tell them that if they put us together and we win the missions, we won't send them to the Temple," Sabrina offered, "Even though we would send them if we have to, they don't need to know that. If they think we'll keep them safe, they might put us together."

"That could work," Kiley agreed, "We should at least give it a shot."

So the four of them went around to all of the other players and asked them if they would pair them with each other if they had the opportunity. They said that if they did, the four of them would protect them from the Temple. Surprisingly, everyone agreed. Even though this didn't guarantee that they wouldn't change their minds before the game, it helped Kiley relax. At least the other players were willing to put them together.

Kiley was down on the beach with a few of the others when Jonna came running up, announcing that she had a surprise for everyone. She was very excited and was waving around a sheet of paper.

"I made a list!" Jonna exclaimed.

"A list for what?" Christian asked.

"A list for the partners! I wrote down who's with whom so no one gets confused about who's supposed to be partnered with whom," Jonna explained, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

She handed the list to Kiley, who started reading it. As soon as Kiley saw that Jonna had succeeded in partnering up everyone with the person they wanted, she hugged Jonna. It was a brilliant idea; this way, everyone will know who was supposed to be partnered together and wouldn't accidentally put someone with the wrong partner. But the main reason that Kiley was hugging Jonna was because Jonna had paired her with Christian and had paired up Jon and Sabrina. In her confessional, Kiley said that she hoped that everyone would stick to the list.

As it came time for the mission, the group made their way down the beach. There were seven colored triangles in a line in the sand (grey, yellow, red, green, blue, purple, orange) and a huge metal structure.

"How're you doing?" JD asked as they walked up to him.

"Good," they all replied.

"Looks like it's time to find out who your partner's gonna be," he continued, "Here's how the game works. Over two thousand years ago, a philosopher named Socrates pondered this question: Is fate in your hands, or is it pre-determined? Some of you may have a very strong opinion once this game is over. Here's the deal, before you is this giant game called "Fate Falls." A ball will actually drop from the top, bouncing through all the obstructions as it makes its way all the way to the ground. Whoever catches the ball will pick any guy and any girl to be teamed together; you can't pick yourself. Once you have a partner, you're out of the game. Later, each team is gonna get the chance to pick one of those Pyramid Pieces. Remember, you gotta get all ten to win the game. The final two players here who prove that they have the most endurance, lasting to the end of this game, they're getting a reward; they're getting two pieces. Is everybody ready?"

"Yeah," they replied.

They all moved to stand beneath the structure. Kiley was nervous; she hoped that whoever caught the balls would stick to the list and give everyone the partners they wanted.

"Here comes the first one," JD announced as he pulled a rope on the side of the structure.

A yellow ball was released from the top and made its way down. Everyone started moving around, trying to get underneath it. When it finally became free from the metal structure and fell to the ground, they all dove. Kiley tried to get it and almost succeeded, but Jonna beat her to it.

"Jonna's got it," JD announced, "Everybody pile up in the middle; Jonna, come here."

When Jonna stood next to him, JD continued, "Jonna, nice job. You get to put the first team of Endurance together. Let's start with the guys; which one of the boys do you want to start with?'

"Jon," announced Jonna.

"Jon," confirmed JD, "Jon, stay right there, because the next move is you're gonna have to position Jon with a girl. Now, which one of the girls is it gonna be?"

"Sabrina," Jonna said.

"Thank you," Sabrina laughed with relief.

Kiley was glad that Sabrina and Jon got to be partners. She wasn't surprised that Jonna stuck to the list, considering she was the one who made it.

"You guys are the first team," JD said, "Come on over here, step in the yellow spot."

He handed the yellow ball to Sabrina as she and Jon went to step on the yellow triangle. Jonna hugged both of them before moving back over to the rest of the group.

"Alright," said JD, "Jonna looks like she's pretty tough out here. You guys should be standing where she's standing. Get into position; the next color is coming up."

He pulled another rope and the blue ball was released. As the ball bounced away, Kiley raced the other players and was able to grab it. She caught it; she couldn't believe that she actually caught it! Kiley stood up and smiled as she thought about who she was going to choose to put on the blue team.

"Come on over here," JD told her, "Nice job. You ended up with it, which means you have a very important decision to make. Which one of the guys are you gonna select?"

"Aaron," Kiley answered.

"Now for the big decision," JD said, "Who is gonna be Aaron's partner for the rest of this game?"

Remembering who was on the list as Aaron's partner, Kiley replied, "Jonna."

"Jonna and Aaron, you are the blue team," JD announced, "Go ahead and step onto the blue spot."

Kiley headed back over to the rest of the group and breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was going great so far; two teams of people who had wanted to be partnered together. Now all that had to happen was for her and Christian to be paired together and everything would be perfect.

"We now have the first two teams of Endurance," said JD, "It's starting to get serious. Here we go."

The next ball to fall was the red ball. After a bit of struggling with Christian and Trevor, Layla ended up with it.

"Come on over here, Layla," JD said, "Layla beat out two guys for this thing. She's not giving up. As I'm pulling you over here, I'm hearing so many things being said to you. A lot of people trying to pull you in different directions. Alright, let's find out which way you're gonna go; this is for the Red Team. I want you to pick the guy who's gonna be on the Red Team; who's it gonna be?"

"Christian," Layla said after a moment of hesitation.

Kiley's heart almost stopped. Christian got picked for the Red Team. With one word, Layla could either make her Christian's partner or completely crush her hopes. She was almost shaking as JD asked Layla who would be Christian's partner. As Layla hesitated, Kiley swore that she heard Sabrina whisper something to Layla. It sounded as if Sabrina was telling Layla to choose Kiley.

After an agonizing wait, Layla finally said, "Kiley."

Kiley couldn't help smiling; she had actually gotten Christian as a partner! JD handed Christian the ball as they walked over to the red triangle. Kiley felt as though she could relax for the first time since she got here. She made it through the right to stay mission and she managed to get the partner she wanted. The rest of the game seemed to go by in a blur for her. The only thing that managed to stick out to her was when Max grabbed the green ball and messed up the list. He picked Trevor to be on the Green Team and according to the list, he should have made Chelsea be Trevor's partner. But instead, he announced that Lana was going to be Trevor's partner.

Kiley had a feeling that Max's move was intentional. Sure, he could have simply forgotten who was really supposed to be Trevor's partner, but Max had expressed displeasure with the list earlier that day. This may have been Max's way of protesting the list and taking things into his own hands to mess with everyone's heads.

Jenna chose Layla and Brandon to be the Purple Team, Max chose Chelsea and Skyler for the Orange team, and Max and Jenna automatically became the Grey team. The Grey Team, since they were the last team created, earned two pieces for themselves. After the teams were picked, JD told them that he would meet them later so they could pick their pieces and the trips they wanted.

They spent the next two hours discussing what had happened during the mission. Lana was the one who was the most upset about who her partner was; she had wanted Brandon as a partner, not Trevor.

"Think about it," she told some of the other girls, "If I win, I have to go on a trip with this kid."

Kiley and some of the others were curious as to why some of the people didn't want to follow the list.

"If they weren't happy with it, why didn't they just come right out and say so?" Jenna asked, "Why go along with it until you have the opportunity to change it?"

"Probably because they thought we would take them out of the mission right away," Kiley said, "If Max had told us that he was thinking of not going by the list, the person who caught the first ball could have paired him up with someone right away. That way he wouldn't have been able to mess things up."

"Who was in on this whole thing anyway?" Jonna asked.

"Max, Aaron, Trevor, and Brandon," Layla replied, "Brandon mentioned it earlier. He said that the four of them were planning on messing up the list."

Just then, the producers of the show came up and told them that they had something they wanted to show the teenagers. They led them to a small cabin, where they found several tables covered with clothes.

"These are for you," one of the producers said, "You can pick out some clothes from your team color."

There was one table for each team, so each team headed to their table to pick out their clothes. They were told that the only thing they were required to pick out was a shirt with the show's logo on it in their color. Kiley, who loved getting new clothes, felt like she was in Heaven. She couldn't believe how many different kinds of clothes were on the table. There were sweatshirts, t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, tank tops, bandanas, pants, shorts, socks, shoes, and even hats and hair ties. She picked out some of everything and went to try them on. Luckily, they were all her size; she was so glad that she was able to have all of these cool clothes to represent her team color.

After they finished picking out their clothes, Kiley and Christian started talking about which piece and which trip they should pick.

"I like the picture on the Leadership piece," Christian said, "It looks like a crown."

"You want the Leadership piece just because it has a crown on it?" Kiley asked, shaking her head with a disbelieving laugh.

"Yeah, it looks cool," Christian replied, "Who doesn't like a crown?"

"Yeah, it does look kinda cool," Kiley agreed, still laughing,"So what trips do you think we'll be able to go on?"

"I don't know," Christian said, "I hope they'll be someplace cool. Maybe we'll get to go to another country."

"Yeah, that'd be awesome," Kiley said with a smile, "I've always wanted to go to another country."

"You've never gone to another country before," Christian asked incredulously, "Seriously?"

"Nope," she replied, shaking her head, "I almost got to go to Mexico once with my mom when she had to go to Baja for work, but I couldn't get the three days off from school because I had a big test in my math class on one of the days. Have you ever gone out of the country?"

"Yeah, I went to Australia last year for a surfing competition," he said, "Just outside of Perth."

They continued talking about all of the places they would like to travel to until they were told that it was time to pick out their pieces and their trip, so they put on their shirts with the show's logo and headed down the beach to meet JD.

"Ok, here we go," JD said, "The seven teams of Endurance all decked out in their Endurance game shirts. Everybody pretty happy how this worked out?"

"Yeah," replied everyone, except for Lana.

"So Lana, who were you supposed to get according to Jonna's list?" asked JD who had noticed Lana's disappointment both during the game and currently.

"Brandon," she replied.

"And yet, you're standing next to Trevor," he said, "Looks like some people decided to abandon the list. What happened?"

"Max messed it up," Trevor stated.

"So Max," JD said, "Buddy, you decided to go off the list."

"I didn't go off the list, I never got the final draft of the list," Max said defensively. "And what Trevor's excluding was when I didn't know who to pick for him because I was confused, he was pointing to Lana. He was like, 'Pick Lana for me,' so I did."

"You know, this show is all about teamwork," JD said, "So you're really gonna find out how well you can work with someone whether they were supposed to be your partner or not. Now, before you are the ten pieces that make up the Pyramid of Endurance. You have to collect every piece in order to win the game. But keep in mind, the qualities written on these pieces are what it really takes to win. We're gonna start in the order the partners were picked. For the Yellow Team, we've got Sabrina and Jon; which one's gonna be your piece?"

"Perseverance," Sabrina replied.

JD took the Perseverance piece and handed it to Sabrina.

"Blue Team, Jonna and Aaron, which piece are you gonna go with," he asked.

"Courage," said Jonna, and JD handed her the piece.

"The Red Team, Kiley and Christian, which one looks good to you?" JD asked them.

"Leadership," Kiley replied.

"You guys think you're the team that's got the leadership, huh?" JD asked jokingly.

"We just like the picture," Christian laughed as JD handed them the piece.

Green Team chose Commitment, Purple chose Strength, Orange chose Luck, and Grey chose Heart and Trust. That left Discipline and Knowledge left up for grabs.

"Alright, now that the pieces are out of the way, who wants to go on a grand prize trip?" JD asked, to which everybody raised their hands, "I had a feeling. Alright, it's gonna be one of seven awesome international expeditions."

JD started telling them the trips they could go on: Amazon, Galapagos, Bali/Komodo, Australia, African Safari, Belize, or Costa Rica. He told them that if another team took the trip that they wanted and that team went home, their piece and their trip would be up for grabs in the next Endurance mission. Yellow Team chose Belize, and JD gave them a cool wooden carving to represent their trip. Blue chose the African Safari and were given a carving of a giraffe.

When asked what trip they wanted to go on, Christian replied, "The Amazon." JD handed him a long, thin wooden carving of a snake.

Green chose Australia and got a boomerang, Purple chose Costa Rica and got a carving of a large bird, Orange chose Bali/Komodo and got a sail boat, and Grey chose Galapagos and got a turtle.

"As you can see, there's only two pieces remaining," JD said, pointing to Discipline and Knowledge, "Those two pieces are up for grabs in the first Endurance mission tomorrow. You win those pieces, you take the lead; one step closer to having all ten pieces and going on one of those trips. To win this game, it's about teamwork. Take the time tonight to get to know your teammate; talk about the strategies, talk about how you're gonna win this game. Tomorrow, the game is on."

Each team sat apart from one another at dinner in order to talk to their partners. As Kiley looked around, she noticed that everyone was talking except for Green Team, which didn't surprise her at all.

"Look at Green Team," Kiley told Christian quietly, "They aren't talking at all."

"Of course they're not," Christian replied, "They don't like each other at all. They're not gonna be able to work together very well in the missions."

"Do you think that'll make them an easy team to beat?" she asked.

"Maybe," he said, "I think Green, Orange, and Purple will be the least competition. Grey might be pretty strong, and Blue and Yellow might be the hardest to beat."

"Yeah," Kiley agreed, "Orange doesn't seem like they're very strong at all. At least we're already really close with Yellow, and Jonna and I have been getting along pretty well."

"We should try to get closer to Blue and Grey to make it so they won't want to send us to Temple," Christian said thoughtfully, "Aaron and Max are pretty cool, they're also really strong."

"Jenna seems pretty strong, too," Kiley added, "Yeah, we need to work on building some kind of a relationship with those two teams. Especially since Grey has two pieces, they'll have a really big lead if they win tomorrow."

They continued talking strategy for a little while before the conversation turned to their personal lives. Kiley learned so much about Christian, like how he had two older brothers who were also surfers and how he wanted to either be a professional surfer or go to college for a business degree when he finished high school. He was even considering doing both so that once he stopped surfing professionally, he would have some sort of a degree to use. She was impressed with the fact that a 15 year old would know what he wanted to do with his life, even before he started high school.

Just as they were parting ways to go into their separate cabins to get some sleep later that night, Christian stopped her by gently grabbing her arm.

"Hey Kiley," he said softly with a small smile, "I'm really glad that Layla put us on the same team. I know I said that I wanted either you or Sabrina for a partner, but I really only wanted you."

"I'm glad we're partners, too," she replied with a slight blush, "I meant what I told JD this morning, I wanted you as my partner because it's easy to talk to you. I don't think I would get along with anyone else this well."

"Well, goodnight," Christian said with his own face starting to redden, "See you in the morning."

"Yeah, see you in the morning," Kiley said in farewell. She fell asleep with a smile on her face, not even noticing how uncomfortable the bed was. Yes, Kiley though, it's a great thing that Layla put us on the same team.


	5. Chapter 5: Tilt

**I forgot to say in the last chapter that I switched Red and Green's trips from the first episode. I did this because in the reunion show, it showed the winning team going on the Amazon trip. Also, I'll be having Red win the Endurance mission, even though I know that Blue wins it on the show. I'm doing this because I want Red to be a more competitive team. I hope I'll be able to write more often because I'm almost done with this quarter at school. I also want to write more for my other stories, so be on alert for those stories. I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Five: Tilt**

Kiley's back didn't hurt nearly as bad as it had the previous morning and she didn't mind her second cold shower as much as she had minded her first. Like she had the first morning, she was the first to wake up and the first to take a shower. When she was in the shower, she started thinking about everything that had happened in the past two days: On the first day, she managed to survive the right to stay mission and on the second, she got the partner she wanted.

Kiley smiled when she thought about Christian. She had meant what she told him last night, they would make a great team because they were able to communicate with each other. But if she was truly honest with herself, there was another reason as to why she was happy that she had him as a partner. There was no denying that he was really good looking, as well as really nice, which had caught her attention ever since that day she saw him on the beach when she went surfing. She couldn't deny the fact that she was beginning to develop a bit of a crush on her partner.

Before she could dwell on this new development, she heard the bathroom door open and a voice said, "Hey, Kiley, are you in here?"

"Yeah," Kiley replied, "I'm in the shower, Jonna,"

"Hurry up, the producers have something they wanna tell all of us together," Jonna told her.

"Alright, I'm almost done," Kiley said as she started to hurry.

Five minutes later, with her hair still dripping wet, Kiley came out of the bathroom to see what the fuss was about. The rest of the group was sitting in front of the cabins with a producer named James standing in front of them.

"Sorry," Kiley apologized, "I didn't realize that we were supposed to meet, otherwise I would have waited to take a shower."

"That's alright," James reassured her, "I just wanted to let all of you know that we decided to give all of you the day off to get to know your partners better."

Everyone cheered; they would be getting at least one extra day on the show! They would be able to just hang out and have fun.

"From now on, you'll have a day off after every Temple Mission," James continued, "So tomorrow, you'll have the Endurance Mission and the Temple Mission will be the day after that; so three days from now, you'll have another day off."

"Awesome," Brandon cheered, "We don't have to do anything today!"

"Great," Kiley said with a laugh, "I'm gonna go dry my hair now."

"Wait, I'll come with you," Sabrina called after her as she was walking toward the bathroom, "I still need to shower."

"So have you and Jon started working a strategy yet?" Kiley asked Sabrina.

"Kind of," Sabrina replied, "Jon thinks we should start working on an alliance with Blue because Jonna and Aaron seem strong."

"Christian said the same thing last night," Kiley told her, "He also thinks that Grey seems pretty strong, too."

"Yeah, they do," Sabrina agreed, "But we need to be careful about the Green, Blue, Purple, and Orange teams."

"Why?" Kiley asked, "What's going on with them?"

"Jon told me this morning that Aaron, Trevor, Brandon, and Skyler are thinking of getting into an alliance together," Sabrina told her, "He said they were talking about it last night. They're calling it the Brotherhood or something."

"So even if we get in an alliance with Grey, we'll be outnumbered?" Kiley asked, "If we don't win tomorrow or the next day, one of us is gonna get sent to Temple."

"Not if I can convince Aaron to not send us," Sabrina said, "I think he likes me."

"That'll work for you, but how will that keep me and Christian safe?" Kiley asked.

"I'll try to convince him to not send either one of us," Sabrina reassured her, "We should also try to get closer to Jonna. If both of them are friends with us, then neither one will want to send us to Temple."

Kiley was still nervous; so after drying her hair, she went to start on building a relationship with Jonna. When she saw Jonna, Jenna, and Lana sitting on the beach together, she was thrilled. This was a chance for her to start getting to know all three girls better and maybe start an alliance with at least one of their teams.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Kiley asked.

"Not much," Lana replied, "Just talking."

"So where are you all from?" Jonna asked them, "I'm from Tucson."

"San Clemente, California," Kiley replied.

"We're both from Chicago," Jenna said for herself and Lana.

The three girls were soon joined by the other girls who had just finished up in the showers. They talked about their homes, families, friends, and schools as they watched the boys doing their new shower routine in the ocean. The morning felt like it flew by because before she knew it, Kiley was getting lunch with the rest of the contestants.

Kiley and Christian sat a little ways away from the rest of the group and started talking about their morning.

"Any luck with any new alliances?" Christian asked.

"I think so," Kiley replied, "I talked with Jonna, Jenna, and Lana for a while this morning, but I don't know if we've started an alliance at all. What about you?"

"I've been hanging out with Aaron a bit," Christian told her, "He seems cool."

"So what do you think the mission will be like tomorrow?" Kiley asked, "Do you think it'll be anything like the mission yesterday?"

"I don't know," he replied, "But we have to win, that way we'll have three pieces. Whoever wins will be in the lead; if Grey wins, they'll have four pieces. We just gotta win."

"Yeah, we do," she agreed, "So who would you send to the Temple if we win that mission in a couple days? I'm thinking Green should be one of the teams."

"Yeah, Green should go up," Christian agreed, "We should send a strong team up against them, like Blue or something."

"We'd have to be careful who we sent, though," Kiley said, "We don't know what's up there and one team's coming back. What if we sent Blue up there hoping that they'd be the team that came back and they went home? Also, what if they did come back and they were mad at us for sending them up? Like you said, they seem like a strong team; they could try to get back at us."

"Yeah, maybe," Christian considered, "Who would you send up with Green?"

"Maybe Purple or Orange," Kiley suggested, "They don't seem to be that strong. They also don't seem like they would be someone who would hold grudges."

After lunch, Kiley was walking on the beach with Jonna and Sabrina.

"So what were you and Christian talking about at lunch?" Jonna asked Kiley.

"Not much, just talking about what the mission might be like tomorrow," Kiley replied.

"What's going on with the two of you?" Sabrina asked, "It seems like you're always sneaking off to talk about stuff."

"We're just getting to know each other," Kiley replied defensively, "Isn't that what partners are supposed to do?"

"Yeah, but you two seem to be 'getting to know each other' pretty well," Jonna said slyly, "Is there something going on between our two favorite surfers?"

"No!" Kiley replied, blushing furiously, "There's nothing going on!"

"But you want something to be going on, right?" Sabrina asked with a smile.

"You two don't know what you're talking about," Kiley said, her face still bright red, "There's nothing going on!"

"Please, we've seen the way you look at him," Sabrina scoffed, "You were so set on getting him as your partner. Plus, a little birdie in the form of Jon told me that he's pretty fixed on you, too."

"How would Jon know if Christian is 'fixed' on me?" Kiley asked, now feeling nervous.

"Christian told him and the other guys," Jonna replied, "Aaron told me the same thing a little bit ago. Apparently, Christian told the guys last night that he likes you and he thinks you're really pretty. I think he was basically sending a message to the other guys to back off just in case they like you, too."

"Seriously? You think he likes me?" Kiley asked, "Why would he like me, I'm just his partner."

"He could be thinking the same thing about you," Sabrina said, "At least you two are partners, you'll be here the same amount of time. Regardless of when you two go home, you'll be going home at the same time. If you were on different teams, one of you would go home before the other one and you'd be missing each other."

"Another good thing is that you're from the same town," Jonna added, "You go to the same school, right?"

"We will when school starts this year," Kiley replied, "We went to different elementary and middle schools, but San Clemente only has one high school."

"So you'll get to hang out even more after the show is over!" Jonna exclaimed, "It's perfect; you two are, like, meant to be together!"

"Exactly, now all we need to do is get the two of you together," Sabrina said excitedly.

"Wait, Christian and I just officially met two days ago!" Kiley protested, but the two girls weren't listening; they simply continued to whisper conspiratorially together as to how they would pair up Kiley and Christian not just as a team, but as a romantic couple.

Later on that day, Kiley was sitting by herself, thinking about what Jonna and Sabrina told her. Was it really possible that Christian actually liked her? Or was this simply some cruel joke being played on her by some unknown power? Kiley didn't know what to think; she really liked Christian, but she didn't want to get her hopes up that he reciprocated her feelings. She didn't have very long to dwell on her feelings because Aaron called out to her.

"Kiley, come play football with us!" he called.

"Alright, I'm coming!" she called back as she stood up and started walking towards the group.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by. Kiley couldn't believe how fun everything was and how well she got along with everyone. Sure, she was closest with Sabrina, Christian, and Jon, but she got along great with everyone else. She wasn't as close with the Purple or Orange Teams, but she didn't have any problems with them.

Kiley was dreading the day when one team would have to be sent home; she didn't want to be sent home, but she didn't want to be the one to send another team home. There was no way around the fact that the only way she and Christian could be safe from being sent to Temple was to win the Temple Mission, but that would mean she would have to pick two teams to send. There was no doubt that it would be the hardest decision any team would have to make: who would go home?

All fourteen of the teenagers had a hard time getting to sleep that night, mostly because of nerves. They all knew that the next day was really important because of the mission and they needed to get their rest, but they couldn't seem to settle down for the night. Kiley was one of the last to fall asleep; she laid there on her bunk thinking about what had happened that day and what would be happening in the next.

Part of her really wanted to believe what Jonna and Sabrina had told her about Christian and his possible feelings for her. However, she didn't want to get her hopes up in the off chance that it wasn't true and the other girls were just passing on false rumors. As Kiley fell asleep, she couldn't help but hold on to a small hope that it might be true.

Today was the day that they would be playing their first Endurance Mission as teams. As Kiley and the others were getting ready, they could barely contain their excitement. They all dressed in their Endurance shirts and spent the morning hanging out on the beach and playing in the water. While they were hanging out, Kiley noticed that there was something going on between Sabrina and Aaron.

When Sabrina apparently hurt her foot in the water, Aaron carried her up to where her shoes were. As Kiley noticed this exchange, Christian came up to her.

"Hey, Kiley, what's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing really, just watching Sabrina put her big plan into action with Aaron," she replied.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he turned to look at the pair down the beach.

"Sabrina said yesterday that she was going to try to convince Aaron not to send her and Jon up to the Temple," Kiley said, "I didn't know how she was gonna do it, but I guess I do now. She's gonna flirt with him and get him to like her. If he likes her, he won't want to send her. She said that she would try to convince him to not send us either, but I don't know how that's gonna work."

"Well, it looks like he's falling for it," Christian observed, "They look like they're starting to get close."

Later on, Kiley was in the girl's cabin with several of the others talking about Skyler. Everyone was sure that he was planning something and had a strategy to win. He hadn't been interacting very much with the others and was still acting very mysterious.

"I was like, 'Skyler, why don't you come outside with all of us' and he was like, 'No, I don't want to,'" Lana informed the group.

"He didn't care about any other people; he just wanted to win from day one, didn't he?" Jon asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Kiley replied, "Layla said that she was talking with him after they were supposed to be partners because of the list and he told her that his whole plan was to just stay mysterious. He doesn't want anyone to know what he plans on doing if he and Chelsea win a mission."

Kiley noticed Christian outside and went out to talk to him. The two of them went down the beach so they could talk alone.

"What do you think the game's gonna be like today?" Kiley asked.

"I don't know," Christian said, "But I do know that everyone's gonna be trying really hard to win those two extra pieces."

"Well, everyone but Gray," Kiley replied with a laugh.

"What do you mean?" Christian asked as he shot her a look of confusion, "Why wouldn't they want to try for the pieces?"

"For starters, Jenna told me yesterday that she and Max might not try as hard as everyone else," she explained, "She said that they wouldn't actively try to lose, but they wouldn't be upset if they actually do lose. I mean, it makes perfect sense if you think about it. If they win, they'll have four pieces while everyone else only has one. On the one hand, it'll be great for them because they'll have such a huge lead; on the other hand, having such a huge lead will make them a really big target. I mean, wouldn't you want to go after the team that has four times the amount of pieces as everyone else?"

"Yeah, I guess that does make sense," Christian agreed, "But I still think that it would be kinda pointless to not even try. If they lose today, they'll lose their lead in pieces."

"Yeah, but they will be less of a target," Kiley told him, "It's kinda smart, considering how early it is in the game. Yeah, we'll all need to have as many pieces as possible once the game gets farther along, but whoever wins today will become a bigger target than Gray."

"Well, we'll still be trying hard today, right? Cuz I really wanna win," Christian said with a smile.

"Of course we'll be trying hard, I wanna win, too," Kiley replied with a smile of her own, "I wouldn't mind having a few more pieces. Even though it'll make us a target, it wouldn't hurt to start getting a few more pieces. At least we won't be too big of a target because Gray will be right behind us in pieces."

Soon it was time for them to start the game and they were led down the beach to where JD was waiting for them.

"Hey, everybody," JD greeted as they stood in front of him, "Ready for your first Endurance Mission?"

"Yeah," they replied.

"I see you all got your game faces on," he continued, "Gray team, you got two pieces and the lead. That could all change today. We're playing the first Endurance Mission and the winner's gonna get the two remaining Pyramid Pieces. It's also gonna be the first time your partnership is tested, but I can assure you, it's not gonna be the last."

JD held up a small pot and asked them, "You guys wanna know what this is?"

"Yeah," they all replied as they looked at the pot nervously. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"This is the all important Samadhi," JD informed them, "It's the Buddhist word for 'contemplation' and what's in here will negatively affect the outcome of the Temple Mission tomorrow. So not only winning today gets you two pieces, it also gets you power and control. You'll have all day to think about who you wanna give it to; but at the end of the day, you'll give this to one team, greatly affecting their fate of staying in this game. Now, you ready to play the game?"

After their confirmation, JD continued, "In 1953, New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hilary was the first to climb to the top of Mount Everest. But he didn't do it alone; his partner helped Hilary through the slippery slopes and the treacherous snow. These two men depended on each other, much like you and your teammate are going to depend on each other right now."

"Over there," he said as he pointed out into the water at a metal structure, "Way up top is a platform. One member of each team is gonna be harnessed to a pole. You're gonna have to hold onto your partner as the platform tilts downward. The team that can hold on the longest gets the two remaining pieces and power: the Samadhi. If you guys are ready, let's head on out to the game."

They were taken out to the metal structure where it was decided that the boys would be harnessed up and hold the girls. As they stood there getting ready, Kiley was struck with an idea.

"Christian," she whispered to her partner, "Hold on to my wrists instead of my hands."

"Why?" he whispered back, clearly confused.

"If we hold onto each other's wrists," Kiley whispered, "We'll have a better grip; trust me, it'll work."

Christian looked uncertain for a moment before nodding and grabbing hold of her wrists as Kiley grabbed his. They heard JD give the signal to start and the platform started tilting. Within a few seconds, all of the girls were dangling from their partners hands. After not even a minute, Jenna was the first to fall and the Gray team was done. Well, Kiley thought, I guess they really weren't trying to win after all.

Seconds later, Lana fell and Green was out. It was obvious that they wouldn't have lasted long anyway, Kiley thought, Lana is bigger than Trevor and is heavier than him. Just then, Chelsea fell and Orange was done. Kiley was starting to think that she and Christian could actually win the game since only Yellow, Blue, and Purple remained.

Kiley was starting to feel the discomfort of hanging; her arms were starting to burn and her hands were aching. But after Layla and Sabrina fell, she began to just concentrate. She could see that Jonna was moving around a lot to try and get a better grip, so she hoped that meant that Blue team was almost done. Sure enough, Jonna let go of Aaron's hands and fell into the water with a splash.

"We won!" Kiley cheered before letting go of Christian and dropping into the water.

She couldn't believe it; she and Christian won the first Endurance Mission! They now had the Leadership, Knowledge, and Courage pieces and the Samadhi.

When they were back at the cabins, Lana started talking about how she knew she wouldn't have won.

"I knew I wasn't gonna win because my partner was smaller than me," she said bitterly, "I think it should have been the other way. I should have been holding him."

"Yeah, it is kind of hard when he's smaller than you," Kiley agreed, even though she thought that Lana should stop complaining. Yeah, it sucked, but there was nothing they could do about it now.

Everyone was nervous, Kiley could tell. They were really quiet except when they were coming up to her and/or Christian to try to work out agreements with them. Kiley saw Jonna and Sabrina talking and went over to them.

"How's the Samadhi thing going?" Jonna asked.

"Ok, apart from everyone trying to convince me not to give it to them," Kiley replied, "So what I was thinking about, since Orange is not that strong of a team, you know? I mean, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings and…"

"Yeah, give it to them" Sabrina interrupted enthusiastically.

Kiley laughed, knowing that Sabrina was happy that she wasn't going to give it to her.

Soon, they were told to meet in front of their wooden pillars so JD could give the Red Team their two new pieces.

"Red Team," JD said, "You did an amazing job on Tilt; now it's time for your reward. You guys get the last two pieces of the Pyramid of Endurance; all ten are now in play. Remember, everybody, whoever gets all ten pieces first is the Endurance champ. You guys are well on your way, go ahead and place those two pieces on your pillar."

Kiley and Christian walked forward and grabbed their two new pieces. They walked over to their pillar and placed them on it along with their Courage piece.

"Knowledge and Discipline," JD said, "So everybody, here's how I kinda look at this: Red Team's in control. They won the first Endurance Mission, they have the most pieces, and they have the Samadhi. Must be easy to make friends out here right now, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," Christian nodded with a smile.

"I bet it is," JD laughed, "Tonight at The Rock, you're gonna have to make your decision on which team gets this Samadhi. Remember, this will negatively affect the outcome of the Temple Mission tomorrow, so be careful who you give this to. You have all afternoon to make your decision, I'll see you guys at The Rock."

He handed the Samadhi to Kiley and walked away. Kiley suddenly felt incredibly nervous; it was suddenly becoming very real to her that she and Christian would have to make a decision that would change somebody's fate in the game. Whatever they decided could cause someone to go home the next day.

Kiley and Christian were sitting alone on the beach, trying to figure out who to give the Samadhi to.

"I think we should give it to Orange," Kiley said, "That way everybody that we like will stay."

"They do seem to be the safest option," Christian agreed, "I mean, Gray let go first today on purpose and the only reason Green went down second is because Lana is bigger than Trevor. Orange was the only team that wasn't giving up or handicapped by a size difference out of the first three that fell. They were the weakest out of that game."

"Anyone else would be able to come back and send us. So Orange it is?" Kiley asked.

"Yeah, Orange it is," Christian nodded.

After a few hours, it was time to meet JD to reveal the decision of who would be getting the Samadhi. As they were walking down the beach towards The Rock, Kiley felt sick. She didn't want to give the Samadhi to Orange, but it was the safest choice and was a necessary evil. Christian must have noticed her discomfort because he came up beside her and slid his hand into hers to comfort her. Kiley looked over at him and smiled; she marveled how after knowing him for only three days, she felt so comfortable around him. He always seemed to be the one who could make her feel better out of everyone in the group, even her best friend Sabrina.

"Welcome, everybody, to The Rock," JD said, "Every time we do an Endurance Mission, we'll end the day here; a little download on what's happened during the day. Blue team won the game and the lead; but you also have the Samadhi. Remember, it's the Buddhist word for 'contemplation' and it seems like you guys have been doing it all afternoon, contemplating who to give it to. Has any of the other teams been giving you any offers?"

"Yeah, like if I don't give it to them, they won't take me up to the Temple," Christian replied.

"Kiley, was it tough being popular today and making the decision of who to give the Samadhi to?" JD asked.

"I don't listen to bribes," Kiley replied honestly.

"So you're just out there playing the game on your own?" he asked as Kiley nodded her head in confirmation.

After talking to some of the other players about alliances and strategies, JD turned his attention back to the Red Team and the Samadhi.

"I think now it's Samadhi Time," he announced, "Red Team, you have a very big decision to make, this is a lot of power. Which team will be receiving the Samadhi?"

"It came down to the Orange Team," Kiley announced, feeling even guiltier about the decision they had to make. However, she did feel a bit of relief about being able to announce the secret she and Christian had been keeping all afternoon.

"Orange Team, come on up here. I'll take that from you," JD said as Christian handed him the Samadhi and Orange made their way over to him.

"So here's the deal," JD said, "You guys end up with the Samadhi. What's in here will negatively affect the outcome of tomorrow's game. Skylar, I want you to take the Samadhi and break it against that rock right there."

Skylar took the Samadhi and threw it against the rock, breaking it. A rope fell out and JD picked it up.

"Hold onto that," JD instructed Skylar and Chelsea, "Each one of you take a side. Now, what you see there is a rope. The rope has three knots in it; those three knots will affect your game negatively tomorrow. It's no guarantee that you two are going home, it's just gonna be awfully tough to win the game."

JD then turned to the rest of the group and said, "Remember, the winner of the Temple Mission gets to select any two teams they want to send up to the Temple. Two will go up, only one will return; which means two of you are going home tomorrow. I'll see you guys tomorrow; get a good night's sleep."

As they all made their way back to the cabins, everyone was quiet. They were all in a slight state of shock over what had been in the Samadhi and what it could mean. What would happen to the Orange Team the next day when they would have that handicap?

Once they all walked into the girls' cabin and sat down on the bunks, the shock started to wear off and everyone started to relax a little more.

"Well, that was intense," Jenna said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," Brandon replied, "It was crazy."

"I wonder what the three knots mean," Sabrina said, "What do you guys think is gonna happen? Are we gonna have to untie something?"

"Maybe," Max replied, "That seems like the most likely scenario."

Chelsea and Skylar didn't join in the conversation very much; everyone could tell that they were upset over what happened. They genuinely hadn't expected that they would be the ones to receive the Samadhi; they thought it would go to someone else. Kiley knew that they felt at least a little bit betrayed and confused over the whole thing and she couldn't blame them. Yeah, they weren't the strongest team, but it had been the best decision in the end. She hoped that they would be able to see it eventually.

As the night drew to a close, Kiley lay there thinking about what had happened that day. She couldn't believe that she and Christian had won the very first mission and were now in the lead with three pieces. She was sad that they had had to make the decision that they had made, but she knew it would work out in the end; or at least she hoped it would work out in the end.


	6. Chapter 6: Knotted Up

**I'm making Kiley more aware of how ruthless Sabrina was than Ashley did on the show. I think Ashley was just making excuses for Sabrina throughout the whole show. I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Six: Knotted Up**

This was the morning of the group's fifth day on the island and the day of the first Temple Mission. The group of teens all woke early, all too anxious to sleep. Kiley couldn't believe that someone was going home today, it didn't seem possible. They had been together for less than a week, but they were already closer than they had been with some of their friends back home.

One change that had already taken place was that Brandon had changed his hair. When he had arrived on the island, he had it braided; the night before, he decided to unbraid it. It was now all over the place in an afro and was, in the opinion of the other players, totally awesome!

Kiley was walking on the beach with Christian, Sabrina, and Jon. The four of them were worried that if they lost, they would be sent to the Temple.

"If we lose, we're definitely going," Christian said.

"Why do you say that?" Kiley asked.

"Cuz we have the most pieces and we won the last game," Christian replied, "We're the biggest threat right now. Yellow would probably be sent as well because you guys are our best friends here."

"Yeah, whoever wins will probably want to split us up," Jon agreed, "Let's just hope that one of us wins. Gray wouldn't be a bad team to win either cuz they might not send us up."

"Max would probably want to," Kiley replied, "He might say that he doesn't want to send us up, but he would probably do it to get in with the Brotherhood people."

"No, Max wouldn't want to send Red cuz you two are the only ones keeping his team from being the biggest threat," Sabrina said, "Remember how they lost on purpose yesterday? They won't get rid of the one team that is keeping them out of the spotlight. Blue won't send us either."

"You mean Aaron won't send you," Christian replied sarcastically, "You know he likes you. What's to keep Blue from sending us, though? Yellow's safe, but not us."

"Don't worry," Sabrina reassured with a sly smile, "He won't send you if I tell him not to send you. Like you said, he likes me; he won't want to get rid of my best friends because that'll make me not like him."

"In any case, I don't think Jonna will send us," Kiley said, "She won't want to send two strong teams up the first time. If she sent the four of us, whichever one of us that comes back will be really mad and try to get rid of Blue."

"Well, we won't know what'll happen til we see the game," Jon said, "What do you think the game will be?"

"Obviously something with knots, if the Samadhi was any kind of a hint," Christian replied, "Maybe we have to untie something."

Jon and Sabrina then went off to talk on their own, leaving Kiley and Christian alone. Kiley suddenly felt very nervous and self-conscious, something she hadn't felt before in Christian's presence. Thankfully, Christian broke the silence.

"Man, Sabrina's ruthless, isn't she?" he asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, she is," Kiley agreed, "She'll do anything to win, even if it means playing with Aaron's head."

"Do you think she even likes him?" Christian asked, "I mean, it's obvious he likes her, he's always hanging around her and making her those necklaces and stuff, but has she told you if she's interested in him at all?"

"Nope, I don't think so," Kiley replied, shaking her head, "She just wants him to think she does so he won't send her to Temple. It's smart, but it's kinda mean. Aaron probably has no clue that she's playing him."

"Man, that sucks," Christian said in disbelief, "I feel bad for Aaron, he's a great guy. Hopefully he'll realize soon that she doesn't like him. Knowing Sabrina, she'd send him to Temple as soon as she has the chance."

"No, she won't," Kiley countered, "He's valuable to her. As long as he wins missions and continues to like her, Yellow's safe. It's probably why she's friends with the two of us as well; we've already won a mission and didn't give her the Samadhi. She's probably counting on the fact that our team and Blue team will be her only real competition."

"Yeah, but Blue hasn't won anything yet," Christian said.

"But they seem to be pretty strong," Kiley replied, "They came in second yesterday, so that means they're a really strong team. We've only played one game, they still have a chance to win something. Who knows, they might win today. If they do, Sabrina's covering her bases by flirting with Aaron."

"Let's just hope either us or Yellow wins today," Christian said, "Yellow will probably stick to our alliance, at least for a little while."

"I just want it to be over with," Kiley sighed, "I want to know who wins and who's going to Temple. It's gonna be an awful wait to find out who goes to Temple if we don't win. But it'll also suck to be the ones who have to pick two teams if we do win. It's kind of a lose-lose situation."

"Yeah, I don't pity the team who has to make that decision," Christian agreed, "At least whoever wins will absolutely be safe from going to Temple."

"But they'll have to choose two teams to go to Temple," Kiley said, "That'll be a tough choice. No matter what, they'll be responsible for someone going home; they'll also have an automatic enemy in whoever comes back."

"I wonder what's up there," Christian wondered as he looked at the Temple out in the distance, "How will they be competing to stay here?"

"I don't know," Kiley replied as she also gazed at the Temple, "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's something difficult. They'll probably have to do something to prove that they're the stronger team."

"I hope we never have to go there," Christian said, "It would suck to know that we're so close to being sent home early."

"Yeah, same here," Kiley agreed, "I'm definitely not read to go home yet."

"The good thing is that if we do go home, we'll be going home together," Christian said, smiling at her, "That's why I'm so glad we're on the same team; I couldn't imagine still having to play the game if you went home before me. I'd miss you too much, you're really the only person here I can talk about everything with. I mean, I can talk to Jon pretty easily, but it's not the same."

Kiley blushed before replying, "I couldn't imagine having to continue in the game without you, either. Sabrina's pretty easy to talk to, but there's always a chance that she could turn against me at some point. It's also nice that we live in the same town; it'll be easy for us to keep in contact that way."

"Absolutely," Christian replied with a laugh, "We'll even be going to school together in September; we might even be in some of the same classes. By the time we get home, we'll still be able to do some surfing together before school starts."

"That would be awesome," Kiley said, "I can't wait for high school to start, can you?"

"It'll be great," Christian agreed, "Which elementary and middle schools did you go to? I went to Marblehead Elementary School and Shorecliffs Middle School."

"I went to Las Palmas Elementary School and Bernice Ayer Middle School," Kiley said, "I was in the Two-Way Immersion program, so I can speak, read, and write in Spanish."

"Seriously? That's awesome!" Christian exclaimed, "Was it hard learning Spanish? I only know a few words."

"It wasn't really hard," Kiley said, "We started in Kindergarten, so we all got used to switching between English and Spanish throughout the day. I remember it was kind of hard at first because I didn't know any Spanish when I started Kindergarten, but everyone in my class picked it up pretty quickly."

"Man, I wish I had learned how to speak Spanish," Christian said dejectedly before suddenly perking up, "Will you teach me some?"

"Sure," Kiley agreed with a smile.

The two of them spent the next hour practicing Spanish. By the time the producers came to get them, Christian had learned several dozen Spanish words and phrases. Kiley was over the moon with happiness; she had just gotten to spend well over an hour with the boy she was steadily falling for more and more every day. The only thing that seemed to bring down her joyful mood was the realization that it was time for their first Temple Mission.

They all walked down the beach to meet JD.

"Hey everybody, how ya doing?" JD asked as they approached.

"Good," they replied.

"Today is obviously a very big day," JD said, "Two of you will be leaving the island tonight. Skylar, Chelsea, you guys got the Samadhi; the Red Team gave it to you, it means you're gonna have three extra knots for this game."

When JD mentioned her team giving Orange the Samadhi, Kiley instantly felt a stab of guilt; she still felt bad for having to give it to them.

"It's now time for the first Temple Mission," JD continued, "Harry Houdini was one of the greatest escape artists of all time. One of his most amazing tricks was to escape from a box submerged in water after being tied up with a knotted rope. In this mission, you and your teammate are gonna be tied at the waist by a long rope; only lucky for you, you're not gonna be underwater. In the center of the rope is a giant knot. You're gonna have to weave your body around in order to untie the knot. The first team to finish and extend the rope past the two end lines will win. For this game, you're gonna need to have great problem solving skills and obviously, you're gonna need to be calm under pressure. Remember, the first team placed is gonna be guaranteed to stay on this island. They'll then have to select two teams to go up to the Temple. Is everybody ready?"

"Yeah," they all replied, even though they were the furthest from ready they had ever been.

"Ok," JD said, "Let's get into position."

They all went to their ropes and tied one end of their rope around their waist. One person from each team was at either end of the ropes.

"Orange Team," JD said, "I just wanted to point out the fact that you ended up with the Samadhi, so you've got three extra knots. You've got one here and two over here. You can still overcome this, alright? So just try hard."

Once JD gave the signal to start, the teams attacked their knotted rope. They were loosening knots, stepping through them, lifting them over their heads, all trying to be the first team to untie them all. Kiley and Christian were going like crazy and were almost done when they heard JD shout out that there was a winner. Blue Team had won; they had their rope fully unknotted and extended between the two end lines!

Kiley couldn't believe it, they had been so close to winning! As happy as she was that she and Christian wouldn't have to make the decision of who would go to Temple, she was afraid that they might end up going instead.

"Jonna, Aaron, way to go," JD congratulated, "The good news is that you won your first mission. But the hardest part is yet to come. You'll now have to select any two teams to send to the Temple of Fate. Remember, two will go up, but only one will come back. Luckily, you won't have to make your decision just yet; you'll have all afternoon. I'll meet you guys over by your huts, where you'll make your decision; congratulations."

"Man, we almost had it!" Christian exclaimed as a group of them were sitting on the beach, "We only had one more knot."

"How'd you guys work so fast?" Aaron asked him.

"How'd _you_work so fast?" Christian countered.

"Yeah, you were the ones that beat us," Kiley added.

"It's probably because of all of those necklaces he makes for Sabrina," Max said, "He's always having to tie knots for those."

"Well, I'm gonna go to the confessional," Kiley announced as she walked over to the confessional booth.

"Blue's becoming a really big threat," Kiley said to the camera, "They almost won yesterday and they just won today. Man, I don't even know what's gonna be happening later on today."

Back on the beach, Lana told a group of them that she had heard that Blue was planning on sending Orange and Red. Kiley and Sabrina started freaking out.

"Why Red?" Kiley asked.

"Because Aaron wouldn't send Trevor," Lana replied.

"No, he wouldn't cuz their best friends," Sabrina agreed.

"Ok, then we're in trouble," Kiley said with a feeling of dread.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Sabrina asked, referring to Aaron.

"Yeah," Kiley replied, even though she felt bad about exploiting the hold Sabrina had over Aaron.

Kiley went over to Christian to tell him about what Sabrina was planning to do.

"She's over there right now talking to him," Kiley told him.

"About what? About who he's gonna send to Temple?" Christian asked.

"Yeah," Kiley said quietly, "She's gonna try to convince him to not send Yellow or Red."

"Do you think it'll work?" he asked, "Jonna still has a say in things, she might want to send Yellow and Red."

"Jonna doesn't want to make any enemies yet," Kiley said, "Who do you think would be the worst person to make mad? Sabrina would be your worst enemy if you sent her to the Temple and she came back. And if we were sent, then Sabrina would be mad because Blue sent up her friends. I think that if Sabrina can convince Aaron not to send us, then Aaron will overrule Jonna in sending us."

"I hope you're right, cuz it looks like Aaron and Jonna are having a little conference right now about who to send," Christian replied.

Sure enough, the Blue team was sitting on the beach, deep in conversation. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, rumors of who were going to be sent to Temple swirled amongst the group. One minute, it was going to be Yellow and Red; the next, it was Orange and Green. No one knew who was going to go, which was terrifying.

Soon, JD was meeting them in front of the cabins. All of the teams were sitting on the steps, except for Blue, who were standing next to JD in front of the others.

"Blue team," JD said, "This is it; the time has come. You won the Temple Mission and now it's time to choose two teams to send to the Temple of Fate. Who's it gonna be?"

"The teams we have chosen are Gray and Green," Aaron announced to a stunned group.

"Gray and Green," JD said, "You guys have been selected to take the long walk to the Temple of Fate. You'll need to pack your bags, say all your goodbye's; we leave for the Temple at sunset. Enjoy what could be your last few moments on Endurance. See you guys later."

Wile JD was talking, Christian reached over and grabbed Kiley's hand. They smiled at each other in relief; they weren't going to Temple! As soon as JD walked away, everyone jumped up. Max seemed really understanding and surprisingly not upset about Blue's decision to send Gray. He told Aaron that it was ok and he understood that Blue had to do what they had to do. One person who wasn't so understanding was Lana. She was very upset and sat in the cabin crying.

Sabrina and Kiley tried to comfort her by saying she still had a chance to come back, but Lana was inconsolable. The Green and Gray teams spent the next few hours packing their bags and saying what could possibly be their last goodbye's to the other teams.

For some reason, Jonna was also crying. She kept saying how sorry she was that those two teams were going and tried to make it seem as if the whole thing had been Aaron's decision. Lana, along with the majority of the others, didn't believe her.

"If I come back and I win a Temple Mission, she's gone," Lana told Kiley.

Soon it was time for Green and Gray to go to Temple. They said their final goodbye's and walked over to get their pieces. The other teams watched them go until they couldn't see them anymore. They all sat outside the cabins to wait for the one team to come back. Kiley sat next to Christian to talk to him.

"I hope Gray comes back," Kiley said quietly.

"Me, too," Christian replied, "Green was kind of getting annoying."

"Lana was really mad at Jonna," Kiley told him, "She said that if she comes back from Temple and she wins a Temple Mission, she's gonna send Jonna. She doesn't blame Aaron, she just blames Jonna."

"Why? It was a team decision," Christian asked incredulously, "Aaron was just as much responsible for them going to Temple as Jonna was."

"Jonna was going around apologizing to all of them and telling them it was all Aaron's fault," Kiley said.

"Well, in that case, I can see why she's upset," Christian said.

"I'm just glad that we didn't have to go," Kiley said, "But I do feel bad for them."

"Me, too," Christian agreed.

As time went on, it seemed to be the general consensus that everyone wanted Gray to be the ones to come back. But their hopes were soon dashed as they saw which team came walking out of the dark.

"Oh my God, it's Lana and Trevor," Jonna said in shock, "Guys, it's Lana and Trevor."

There were gasps throughout the whole group. They had been sure that it would be Max and Jenna who came back since they seemed to be the stronger team. Everyone jumped up to welcome Green back and congratulated them, but there was a lack of genuine enthusiasm.

As the boys and girls started to go into their separate cabins for the night, Christian stopped Kiley.

"Hey Kiley, since we have the day off tomorrow, do you think you could teach me some more Spanish like you did today?" he asked.

"Sure, that'd be fun," Kiley said with a smile, "I'll be looking forward to it."

"Thanks!" Christian said, then he turned and entered the boys' cabin.

Kiley felt her face turning red as she turned to go into the girls' cabin. Sabrina noticed her red face and smirked at her.

"You were talking with Christian again, weren't you?" she asked with a laugh.

"Yeah, so?" Kiley asked, her face turning even redder.

"So…. you totally like him, don't you?" Sabrina asked, "It's obvious that you like him and I can guarantee that he likes you, too. So what are you gonna do about it?"

"What is there to do about it? It's not like I can just go up to him and tell him that I like him, that would be creepy," Kiley told her.

"You'll never know until you try," Sabrina replied, "Just give it a shot tomorrow since we have nothing else going on."

"I don't know," Kiley said before lying down on her bed.

As she lay there trying to fall asleep, Kiley felt a mixture of sadness, happiness, and anticipation. She was sad that Max and Jenna had to leave, but she was very happy that she was still there. But she was anticipating what would happen tomorrow when she was alone with Christian. There was no doubt that her feelings for him were very strong, but she had no idea if he felt the same way. No matter what Sabrina or anyone else told her, she was still afraid that her feelings would not be reciprocated.


	7. Chapter 7: Plant The Flag

**I was inspired to make Kiley sick in this chapter after I started my New Year sick as well. Also, I wanted Jon to make the "hamburger" comments to Sabrina instead of having Christian say them, which is what happened on the show. This is because if Christian said those comments to Kiley, it would ruin my plotline. I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Seven: Plant The Flag**

Unfortunately for Kiley, she wouldn't get to spend the day teaching Christian Spanish. When she woke on the morning of their sixth day, she felt sicker than she had in a long time. She was covered in a cold sweat and felt achy all over. She had a headache and couldn't stop shivering; she was exhausted despite sleeping all through the night. Kiley had absolutely no energy and was extremely thankful that they didn't have a mission to do that day.

The production physician diagnosed her with a 24-hour bug and advised her to stay in bed for the rest of the day; he even told her not to take a shower as the cold water would do more harm than good. Kiley felt horrible, and not just because she was sick. She had been looking forward to spending time alone with Christian and it was now impossible. She was just too sick.

"How are you feeling?" Sabrina asked as she came to check up on her.

"I feel disgusting," Kiley moaned, "Everything aches and I'm freezing."

"I have an extra blanket if you want to borrow it," Sabrina offered.

"Thanks, that would be great," Kiley said gratefully as Sabrina laid her blanket over her.

Kiley was completely bundled up; she was wearing two T-shirts, a sweatshirt, a pair of sweats, and two pairs of socks. In addition to Sabrina's blanket, she was curled up inside her sleeping bag.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to spend time with Christian today," Sabrina said, "I know you were looking forward to it."

"Yeah," Kiley said sleepily, "I just don't have the energy to do anything today."

"Well, I'll let you get some sleep," Sabrina said, "I'll come see how you're doing later."

"Thanks, Sabrina," Kiley said as she started drifting off to sleep.

A few hours later, Kiley woke up to the sound of someone entering the cabin. At first, she thought it might be Sabrina coming back; however, as she looked down from her top bunk, Kiley saw that it was Chelsea.

The quiet girl sat down on her bed, crying. It was then that Kiley remembered the feelings that Chelsea had developed for Max; the fact that he had gone home the night before had crushed her. Kiley felt sad for her, she was so sweet and had liked Max so much.

"Chelsea, are you alright?" she asked softly.

"Oh, Kiley," Chelsea exclaimed, startled, "I'm sorry, I thought you were sleeping. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"That's alright," Kiley assured her, "I know you liked Max; I'm sorry he went home."

Chelsea nodded and wiped her eyes before replying, "Me, too. I know that it's silly for me to be crying over a boy I only knew for five days, I just really liked him."

"I know the feeling," Kiley said, thinking about her crush on Christian.

"Because of Christian, right?" Chelsea asked, "I've noticed that you've been spending a lot of time together."

"Yeah," Kiley said softly, "I've only known Christian for five days, but I really like him and I don't know how I would feel if he went home before me. That's why I'm so grateful that we were put on the same team."

"But aren't you two from the same town?" Chelsea asked, "How could you have not met before now?"

"We went to different schools," Kiley told her, "San Clemente has six elementary schools and three middle schools. We would have probably met this year because there's only one high school and we're in the same grade. I knew who he was through surfing and he knew who I was, but we never officially met until a couple of days ago."

"What's it like living in California?" Chelsea asked, "I bet it's really different than where I'm from in Arizona."

The two girls continued to talk about their hometowns and their families and friends. Before they knew it, it was time for lunch. Kiley's food was brought to her and as Chelsea stood up to go eat with everyone else, she smiled gratefully at Kiley.

"Thanks for talking with me, Kiley," Chelsea said sincerely, "It's nice to talk to someone who understands what it's like to have a crush on one of the other players. I thought at first that you were going to be mean and manipulative like Sabrina, but you're really nice."

"Thanks, Chelsea," Kiley smiled back, "It was fun talking with you."

A short time later, Kiley woke again to the sound of Christian entering the cabin. He climbed up and sat at the end of her bunk.

"How're you feeling?" he asked.

"A little better," Kiley replied, "I think sleeping has helped a lot. Sorry that I wasn't able to go over Spanish with you today."

"That's ok, we'll do it when you're feeling better," Christian reassured her, "So I started to come in earlier to see how you were doing and saw you talking to Chelsea."

"Yeah, she came in crying," she said, "She was really upset about Max leaving, she had a big crush on him."

"She seemed even quieter today, more than usual," Christian said, "She just sat off by herself all day, except for when she talked to you."

"Well, she just needed someone to talk to someone," Kiley told him, "I helped her get her mind off of missing him by talking about home and stuff."

After pausing for a moment, Christian softly added, "I also heard what you told her just after she came in, about how you like me. Did you mean it, or were you just saying it to make her feel better?"

Kiley felt her heart stop; he had really heard what she had told Chelsea about her crush on him? If she hadn't felt so sick, she would have maybe tried to backtrack and cover for what she had said; however, she just didn't have the energy.

"I meant it," she said simply, not wanting to over-embellish it.

Christian smiled and replied, "Good, cuz I like you, too."

Kiley couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face, despite how sick she felt. She felt a huge sense of relief that she wasn't alone in her feelings. But there was still one question that was on her mind.

"So what now?" she asked, "Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know," Christian said, "It's kinda crazy since we've only known each other for five and a half days. What do you think we should do?"

"Maybe we should take it slow," Kiley replied, "We should probably get to know each other a bit better before we get in any kind of a relationship."

"Yeah," Christian agreed, "That seems like a good idea."

"I'm just glad that you like me back," Kiley laughed, "You don't know how big of a relief it is. Sabrina and Jonna were telling me the other day that it was obvious, but I was worried that it wasn't true."

"I know what you mean," Christian replied, "I was talking with some of the other guys about it, too, and they were saying the exact same thing."

"Isn't it kinda stupid that we were talking about this with everyone except each other?" Kiley asked, "How very soap opera-ish of us, right?"

"Exactly!" Christian laughed in agreement, "Well, I'll let you get some more rest. I'll come check on you later."

"Ok," Kiley replied as Christian hopped off of her bunk and started walking out the door, "Hey, Christian!"

"Yeah?" he asked as he turned around.

"I'm really glad that you're my partner," she told him.

Christian smiled and said, "Me, too."

That night, as all of the other girls came into the cabin for bed, Sabrina climbed up to Kiley's top bunk to talk.

"So I saw Christian come in here earlier," Sabrina said with a sly smile, "What'd you two talk about?"

Kiley blushed and said, "He said he likes me."

"Oh my God, I knew it!" Sabrina squealed, "This is so awesome!"

"So what are you two gonna do?" Layla asked from her bunk across the room.

"We're gonna get to know each other before we get in a relationship or anything," Kiley replied, "I mean, we've only know each other for, like, six days."

"That is so sweet, though," Jonna said, "It couldn't be more perfect! You're from the same town, so you can stay in touch once you go home; plus, you look adorable together!"

"Oh, come on!" Kiley groaned as her face turned as red as her sweatshirt, "That's not true!"

"Yes, it is," Lana said, "You're our resident cute, blonde surfers. You look great together, like on the cover of a magazine or something."

Everyone laughed as Kiley buried her face in Sabrina's blanket in embarrassment. As they all fell asleep a few hours later, Kiley couldn't believe how her day had turned out. She had woken up sick and was going to sleep happy. Yes, she decided, today had ultimately been a good day.

The next morning, Kiley felt much better. She actually had some energy and an appetite, two things she hadn't had the day before. The shower she took felt like the best shower she had ever taken, given the fact that she hadn't showered the day before. It didn't matter that the water was ice cold, it still felt refreshing.

As the morning went on, the group of teens passed the time by playing cards. Kiley was playing a game of cards with Layla in the cabin as Jon, Trevor, and Chelsea watching, while the rest of the group was playing out in front of the cabins. Soon, Kiley heard Sabrina call for her and the other four as everyone else was greeting the approaching JD.

As she walked out, she saw JD holding up a hat and asking, "Do you guys know what this is?"

"It's the hat that I gave to Max that he was supposed to take," Jonna replied.

"Why would you give that to him, was it for good luck or something?" JD asked her.

"He's worn it the whole time, so far it brought him good luck and he was supposed to wear it and he didn't, he gave it back," Jonna said.

"Well, he did wear it last night," JD told them, "And when he left the island, the hat stayed, and inside the hat was a note."

As JD showed the note to the group, Jonna asked, "Is it for me?"

"I didn't open it," JD said to her, "But it's for you to open. Can you read it out loud to everyone?"

Jonna opened the letter and read it; moments later, her mouth dropped open and she started freaking out.

"Oh my God, 'Give this to the next team that you want to betray.' That is so mean," Jonna said in disbelief.

Everyone else started to laugh nervously. Kiley couldn't believe that Max would leave a note like that; Jonna and Aaron didn't betray the Gray team.

"What do you think he meant by that?" JD asked.

"That I betrayed him, and I didn't," Jonna said defensively.

"Now, you know today is another Endurance Mission, right?" JD asked them, "We're gonna be playing a little later this afternoon; there is a Samadhi involved. Chelsea, are you ok? What's wrong?"

Kiley turned around and noticed that Chelsea was crying quietly. Her heart broke for Chelsea, who was trying not to lose the rest of her composure.

"Are you upset about Max?" JD asked softly.

"Yes, she is," Kiley answered for her, knowing that she would break down if she answered for herself.

JD told them he would see them later for the game and left them alone. Everyone started talking about the note that Max had left. Jonna and Aaron were the most upset about it as they had thought that the Gray team had understood why they had been sent to Temple.

Later on that afternoon, the group walked down the beach for the Endurance Mission.

"We're here for our second Endurance Mission," JD told them, "The other night, the Gray team left the island. That means their Pyramid Pieces and their grand prize trip are up for grabs in this Endurance Mission. The team that wins this Mission will get the two pieces, the option to trade their trip for the Galapagos Islands, and also, the Samadhi. You'll then be allowed to give this to any team you want. What's in here is not good. This will negatively affect the outcome of the Temple Mission tomorrow. Are you ready to play the game?"

"Yeah," they replied.

"Ok," JD continued, "Did you know that almost every major accomplishment in history has been topped off by setting a flag? When explorers arrived at the South Pole for the first time, they planted a flag. When they reached the top of Mt. Everest, they planted a flag. And when astronauts arrived on the moon, what did they do?"

"Planted a flag," they all replied, laughing.

"This game is for all those who have made those major accomplishments," JD said, "Here's the game: One player from each team is gonna be planting flags while the other will be retrieving them. The catch: You and your teammate are gonna be connected by this giant pulley system. The player on the ground will have to move back and forth to raise the partner into the air, grabbing the flags. The first team to plant all four flags wins the game. Remember, this game is gonna take communication and coordination. Talk to your partners and help them out, alright? Let's hop into position."

Almost every team decided to have the guys being the ones running and the girls being the ones to grab the flags. The only team that didn't was Green; this was because, as demonstrated in the previous Endurance Mission, Lana was bigger and heavier than Trevor. Once they were hooked into the harnesses, they had to stand with one hand touching their partner's hand to ensure that no one got a head start.

Once JD gave the cue to start the game, the players on the ground took off running. Once Kiley managed to grab hold of her first flag, she yelled for Christian to run back, which lowered her down far enough for him to take it from her. She tried not to pay attention to what the other teams were doing; all she would do was concentrate on grabbing her next flag.

Before she knew it, she was handing him the second flag and then the third flag; she allowed herself to look at how far the other teams were and saw that Yellow was the only team that was close to them. It would come down to how fast Jon and Christian could run. Whoever ran faster out of those two would win. Kiley held her breath as she was raised in the air a final time, hoping that Christian would beat out Jon.

Kiley cheered, "We won!" as JD announced that the game was over.

JD congratulated them and handed them the Samadhi. Once they got back to the cabins, Lana immediately started complaining about how hard it was to do the running.

"Yeah, you were the only girl that was, like, pulling," Jonna said.

"I know, that's cuz I weigh more than my partner," Lana laughed.

Sabrina was extremely mad at Jon; not because they lost the game, but because of a comment he had made to her. Once Sabrina told Kiley, they sat on the beach talking about it.

"Don't eat so many hamburgers," Kiley laughed, amazed that Jon had actually said that to Sabrina, "That was so mean. I can't believe he said that!"

In her confessional, Kiley explained, "Sabrina's really mad at Jon because after the game was over and they lost, he was like, 'God, Sabrina, you should stop eating so much hamburger.' She got really mad, so she's not been talking to him at all."

Back in the cabin, Sabrina was still really upset. Jon kept trying to defend himself by saying it was just a joke, but she wasn't having any of it.

"Why'd you say that to her?" Kiley asked Jon.

"It was a joke!" Jon said defensively, "I mean, in the first Endurance Mission, we had to hold on to you girls and in this game, we had to pull you up. All I meant by the joke was that if we have to keep holding or pulling you girls up, you should eat less."

"You don't hear any of the other guys complaining," Layla told him.

"It was just a joke, I'm sorry!" Jon said in exasperation.

"Have you two decided who you're giving the Samadhi to?" Jonna asked Kiley and Christian.

"No," Christian replied, "We haven't really had a chance to talk about it."

Before they could have a chance to talk about who they wanted to give it to, they were given their pieces. They now had five: Leadership, which had been their first piece; Knowledge and Discipline, which they had won in the first Endurance Mission; and now Heart and Trust, which Gray had left behind.

Kiley couldn't believe that they had five pieces! Everyone else only had one, which meant that she and Christian had a major lead in the game.

As they walked over to put the pieces on their pillars, Kiley whispered to Christian, "Can you believe that we have this many already?"

"I know, it's crazy!" he whispered back, smiling.

When JD asked them if they wanted to take Gray's trip to the Galapagos or stay with the Amazon, they decided to stay with their original trip. That meant that the Galapagos trip was now out of the game.

As they were walking back to the cabins, Sabrina came up to Kiley.

"I have an awesome idea," she whispered.

"What's that?" Kiley asked softly.

"You can ask Trevor what goes on at the Temple," Sabrina said, "If you tell him that you won't give the Samadhi to him, he'll probably tell you what happened."

"You know, as much as I don't like tricking people for info, that's a really good idea," Kiley said, and she went off to talk to Trevor.

Trevor told her that it was essentially rock-paper-scissors, which meant that the Temple was really just a game of luck. Kiley told Christian, Sabrina, and Jon what Trevor had told her, and it was soon common knowledge amongst all of the teams.

Lana was furious with Trevor and tried to cover up what he said by making up another story, but it was already too late. What Trevor said made sense and Kiley knew that Lana wouldn't be so desperate to convince them of another story if Trevor wasn't telling the truth.

"So who do you want to give the Samadhi to?" Kiley asked Christian as they sat alone on the beach.

"Either Orange or Purple," he replied, "Orange seems to be the least likely to retaliate and Purple probably won't, either."

"Let's give it to Purple," Kiley said, "I still feel bad about giving it to Orange last time. Plus, Purple is stronger than Orange."

At the Rock, JD started by saying, "I wanna know how well you have all gotten to know each other. We're gonna have a little survey; it's gonna be anonymous. I want you guys to answer honestly to each question and keep the answers to yourselves. Alright, Christian, give me a hand here, pass these out."

JD started throwing rolled up pieces of paper at Christian, but he was purposefully throwing them faster than Christian could catch them and pass them out.

"Slow down there, JD," Christian laughed, "I can't pass this fast!"

After everyone had unrolled their piece of paper, JD said, "Here comes the first question: Which team is in charge? Here comes the next question: Which team is the most honest? Which team never shuts up? Which team would change partners if they could? Which team will be next to leave? Alright, go ahead and hand them in. Okay, now that we've got the survey out of the way, looks like it's time for the Samadhi. Red Team, you've had the Samadhi all afternoon; I'm sure you've been contemplating which team to give it to. We know it's not a good thing, and we know it will definitely affect the outcome of the Temple Mission tomorrow. Have you made a decision on which team will get the Samadhi?"

"Yeah," Kiley replied.

"Which team is it?" JD asked.

"Purple," Kiley and Christian announced together.

"Purple Team," JD said, "Take the Samadhi from Red and come on up here."

After Purple joined him in front of the Rock, JD told them to break the Samadhi open on a small rock, which they did.

Layla picked up a note that came out of it and read, "You will not be permitted to participate in the next Temple Mission."

As they were headed back to the cabins, Layla and Brandon weren't speaking to anyone, save for Chelsea (which wasn't a surprise, since Layla and Chelsea were best friends). Kiley considered apologizing to them, but realized it would probably be in vain. It was too soon and both of them would be too upset. Plus, nothing she could say would make it better; they wouldn't believe that she and Christian didn't mean it. All she could do was leave them alone.


	8. Chapter 8: Squeeze Play

**I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Eight: Squeeze Play**

The morning of the second Temple Mission was filled with a mixture of excitement and anticipation for what would happen. There was also a bit of fear, since everyone knew that one team would be leaving that night.

After they showered and ate breakfast, Christian approached Kiley with a strange request. She had been with the other girls who were helping each other fix their hair when Christian joined them.

"Hey Kiley, do you think you could do my hair?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Kiley asked as she and the other girls looked at him strangely.

"I mean, will you braid it for me? For a good luck charm," he replied.

"How will braiding your hair be good luck?" Jonna asked.

"I don't know," Christian said, "It seems like it would be cool, though, especially if it works."

"Sure, I'll do it," Kiley told him, "Why not, it might actually work. But why do we need a good luck charm, we've already won two out of three of the games."

"Exactly," Sabina said, "If anything, we need a good luck charm because we haven't won anything yet."

"We've only won Endurance Missions," Christian said, "I want to win a Temple Mission, so we need a good luck charm."

"Alright, come sit down," Kiley said, and Christian sat down next to her.

It took her about half an hour to braid all of Christian's hair, securing each braid with small hair ties. After she was done, he rushed to the bathroom to look at his hair in the mirror.

"This is awesome!" Christian exclaimed, "Thanks Kiley, this'll definitely help us win today!"

"Oh yeah, cuz a hair style totally influences the outcome of a game," Kiley joked.

"Of course it will," he said confidently, "Just wait, you'll see that we're totally gonna win today."

As they walked out of the bathroom, they saw the others were playing cards in front of the cabin. Once they caught a glimpse of Christian's hair, everyone burst out laughing.

"Man, what's up with your hair?" Brandon asked.

"It's a good luck charm, apparently," Sabrina said, "He asked Kiley to do it for him so they can win today."

"How will it help?" Trevor asked with a laugh, "Will it give you magic powers or something?"

"Don't doubt my hair," Christian told them, "It'll work, I know it will."

They all continued to play cards and trying to have a good time, but they were all anxious to get started with the mission. Soon enough, just after they finished lunch, they were told to walk down the beach to meet up with JD. As they walked up to JD, they saw a giant outline of a pyramid on the ground.

"How is everyone today?" JD asked.

"Good," they replied.

"As you know, today is another Temple day," JD continued, "Which means two of you will be going home tonight; I'm sure you don't want that to happen. Purple Team, you guys got the Samadhi, what did it say?"

"It says we can't play today," Layla replied.

"Christian," JD said, shifting his attention, "Is the hair supposed to give you good luck?"

"We're gonna find out, aren't we?" Christian asked, laughing.

"Around 300 AD in Ancient Greece," JD said, "Athenians created the first democracy. Instead of having a king who told everybody what to do, they let everybody vote. Today, you guys are gonna be voting Endurance style. Remember when you guys took those votes yesterday at the Rock? That survey you took is today's game."

Everyone gasped in amazement; they would just be answering questions that they had already answered the day before?

"I'm gonna ask you a series of questions based on last night's survey," JD continued, "For each question, your answer will be what you think the majority of players said. Here's how it works: You answer one of the questions correctly, you're gonna move up in the pyramid. If you get it wrong, you just stay where you are. As you move forward, there's gonna be less and less spots on the pyramid; so those who answered incorrectly are gonna be squeezed out of the pyramid. The last person standing right on the edge of that pyramid is gonna win the Temple Mission and a whole lotta power. Purple Team, I'm sorry to say you guys will be sitting out; take a seat right here. Everyone else, standing next to your teammate, take a spot on the pyramid."

Once everyone moved into position, JD said, "Ok, pick up the bag of rocks in front of you. Remember, you're gonna be voting by team colored rocks. Also remember, the answer you're giving us is what you think the entire group said, not what you said. Here comes the first question: Which team would do anything to win?"

Kiley thought about it for a moment before grabbing the blue rock.

"Ok, let's reveal," JD instructed, "The correct answer is Blue. Everybody who got Blue right, go ahead and take a step forward."

Kiley stepped forward along with Jonna, Jon, Chelsea, and Skyler.

"Which team is the most honest?" JD asked.

Kiley chose Orange, which was correct; she moved forward with Skyler, Jonna, and Lana.

"Which team is in charge?" JD asked.

Kiley chose Yellow and got to move forward with everyone else.

"Which team will be the next team to leave this island?" JD asked.

Kiley chose Purple and got to move forward with Aaron, Jon, and Christian.

"Now as you can see," JD said, "We've completed that part of the pyramid. The three behind that line, you've all been squeezed out of the game, go ahead and take a seat."

Sabrina, Trevor, and Chelsea all had to sit down next to Purple, meaning that Orange, Yellow, and Green all had only one player left in the game.

"Since Red has only one space left to go," JD said, "They will win the Temple Mission if Kiley gets this question right."

Oh yeah, no pressure, Kiley thought, maybe Christian's hair is lucky after all.

"Which team would change partners if they could?" JD asked.

Kiley chose Green, as did the majority of the others. However, there was one Blue, which didn't escape JD's notice.

"I see one Blue," JD announced, "The interesting thing about the Blue is that Aaron picked it. However, if Kiley gets this right, Red Team has won this game."

Kiley felt as though the anticipation was killing her. She looked back at Christian, who had also picked Green; he looked just as nervous as she was.

"The correct answer is Green," JD said.

Kiley heard Christian cheer as she stepped forward into the last space.

"Christian, you can join her up there," JD told him.

Christian came up next to Kiley and gave her a big hug. Kiley laughed and hugged him back, laughing.

"Kiley did a good job, didn't she?" JD asked.

"Yes, she did," Christian said as he smiled at her.

"She won you guys this mission," JD said, "Nice work. You guys can celebrate now, but remember: you guys have a very tough decision on your hands. You're gonna have to select two of these teams to send up to the Temple and only one of them is coming back. You have all afternoon to decide, I'll see you guys at sunset."

Kiley and Christian couldn't stop smiling; they were both relieved and excited that they knew for sure they wouldn't be going home tonight. They decided to wait a while before discussing who to send so they could at least enjoy their win for a little while.

Back at the cabins, everyone was congratulating them. Kiley was sitting in the window of the cabin, talking to Sabrina and Jonna.

"It was the hair," Jonna said, referring to Christian's "lucky" hair.

Kiley smiled and said in agreement, "It was the hair. But now he's gonna want to keep it!"

"Yeah, you're gonna have a hard time convincing him to take it out," Sabrina laughed, "Cuz now he thinks it works!"

A little while later, Kiley and Christian were talking about who they wanted to send.

"I think we should send Orange and Purple," Christian said.

"Yeah," Kiley agreed, "I just feel bad about sending Chelsea cuz I really like her."

"But the only other team we would send would be Green, and we don't want them on our bad side," Christian told her, "You saw how they reacted when Blue sent them. If they came back after we sent them, they would be going after us."

"So it's Orange and Purple, then," Kiley said, sighing, "Man, this sucks. I mean, it makes sense to send those two teams, but I don't want to see either one of them go. But if we win next time, we have to send whoever comes back this time with either Blue or Green. Blue's our strongest competition and Green needs to go, too."

"Definitely," Christian agreed.

Later on, Lana came up to Kiley after talking with Layla and said, "She knows."

"How?" Kiley asked. She and Christian had let a few people know who they were sending, but she was still shocked that Layla had managed to find out.

"I don't know," Lana admitted, "She was talking and she said that if she came back and won, that she would send Red and Yellow up."

"Well, I don't want Purple to come back," Kiley told her honestly.

"Why are you sending them?" Lana asked.

"Who else am I supposed to send?" Kiley retorted.

"Blue," Lana said as if it were obvious.

"I can't!" Kiley told her, "It's just for this time. We said that whoever comes back, the next time we're sending them up with Blue."

Lana nodded, oblivious to the fact that Kiley was leaving out the part where they were considering sending Green as well.

"I've wanted Blue gone from the beginning," Kiley said in her confessional, "I think that we should keep Green around at least for a little while because they want Blue gone, as well. Blue's our biggest competition because they won the last Temple Mission, so I think that they need to go."

Layla came up to Kiley and asked, "You're not gonna send Purple, right? Because of the pact we made on the day we made partners?"

"What pact?" Kiley asked, genuinely confused.

"That if I put you and Christian together or Jon and Sabrina together, you wouldn't send me to Temple," Layla said, "I put you and Christian together, remember?"

"Yeah, but we meant that we wouldn't send you the first time," Kiley told her, "It wasn't an alliance or anything."

Layla looked upset and walked away. Kiley felt horrible, but she didn't know what else to do. She had just gone along with the idea that Sabrina had come up with that day without realizing that it would come back to haunt her.

Kiley soon saw Layla talking with Sabrina and knew that she had brought the subject up again. Knowing Sabrina, she was probably denying the whole thing to get herself out of trouble.

"I didn't think we made a pack with them," Sabrina told Kiley as they were sitting in the cabin with some of the others, "And she kept going on about it."

"Who?" Kiley asked.

"Layla," Sabrina replied.

"We didn't," Kiley said, shaking her head.

Soon it was time to announce who they were going to send up to Temple. It wasn't going to be fun, but someone had to go up.

"So Red Team," JD said, "It's decision time, huh? This is the kinda the toughest part of this game. You know, what I've noticed so far is that the only teams that have gone up to Temple or have gotten the Samadhi are the teams that are not really threatening for the lead yet. Jon, why do you think that is?"

"Well, we think that they know that they're not that big of a target," Jon replied, "So they might wanna just get us off."

"So before they split up your tight knit group, you're saying, 'Out you go'?" JD asked.

"Yeah," Jon said.

"It's now time for you to select two teams that will be heading up to the Temple of Fate," JD said to the Red team, "Which two teams is it gonna be?"

"Purple and Orange," Christian said immediately.

"Purple and Orange," JD repeated, "Those two teams are headed up to the Temple of Fate. You'll have some time to pack your stuff, say your goodbyes, and at sunset, you'll make the walk up to the Temple."

Orange and Purple were in the cabins packing their bags. Kiley walked past the window and saw that Layla was crying. She saw that Christian was alone and walked over to him.

He saw her coming from the cabins and asked, "So is everyone in there crying?"

"Layla is," she told him, "I wanna go say something to her, but I think she might yell at me."

"I remember looking at them," Christian said, "And being, like, 'Yeah, it's you.'"

"I really wanna go talk to Orange," Kiley said, "I feel so bad, I really hope they come back."

Just as she said that, she noticed that Layla had been walking right behind her. Layla stopped and stiffened; Kiley realized that Layla had heard what she said and instantly regretted her words. Layla turned around and walked away before either Kiley or Christian could say anything to her.

Now Kiley felt even worse and her desire to see Orange return just doubled. She knew that Purple would be a major threat to them because not only had she and Christian given them the Samadhi and sent them to Temple on two consecutive days, but Layla would really hate them because of Kiley's lack of a mental filter.

It was hard sitting there in front of the cabins, waiting for one of the teams to come back. She sat off by herself, still feeling horrible about what she had said earlier. Christian soon came to sit by her after seeing her all alone.

"What's up?" he asked quietly, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, "I just feel so bad about what I said in front of Layla. I meant it, but I shouldn't have said it where she could hear it. Now she probably thinks that no one wants her to come back."

"Hey, it's as much my fault that they went up as it is yours," Christian told her, "Yeah, it sucks that Layla had to hear what you said, but you can't take it back. She'll realize someday that you didn't mean it in a mean way. You didn't say it to hurt her feelings, you were just being honest. She won't hold it against you."

"I hope you're right," Kiley sighed, "I just really hope that Orange does come back because they probably won't go after us."

"Same here," Christian replied, "But Brandon and Layla were really confident that they were going to come back. They were both saying things like 'When we come back' and stuff like that."

"But if we go by what Trevor said the Temple is like, it's just a game of luck," Kiley said, "Hopefully Orange is lucky and beats them."

A short time later, Lana said loudly, "I see someone coming!"

Everyone stood up to see who it was and once they saw that it was Orange, they all started screaming. They ran out to hug them and welcome them back. But no one was happier than Kiley; she was thrilled that Orange came back because she and Christian would be safe from retaliation.


End file.
